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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



The Little Valleys 



SHORT DEVOTIONAL 


CON 


SIDE RAT I ONS 


FOR 


MEDITATION 


I N S 


IMPLE FORM 



BY 

THE REV. CHARLES MERCER HALL, M.A. 

Rector of the Mission Church of the Holy Cross 

Kingston, New York 

Author of " The Life of a Christian" etc. 




LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK 

LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 

1912 




4 



©3.8- 



COPYRIGHT7 19*2 
BY LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 



THE • PLIMPTON • PRESS 
[ W D • O ] 

NORWOOD • MASS • U • S • A 



r 



SCI.A312044 



TO 

B. P. H. 

Proverbs xxxi: 28 



FOREWORD 

These are not technically arranged medita- 
tions. They are devotional thoughts that have 
come to the Author at random moments and 
helped him. So he is printing them with the 
hope that they may help others. 

Ten minutes a day given to devotional read- 
ing will help keep alive the Divine Fire within 
us. We are to search the Scriptures and medi- 
tate on these things. 

So the soul goes on to God, 

C. M. H. 

* 

The Nutshell 

Bethlehem, New Hampshire 

MCMXI 

* 



[vii] 



INTRODUCTION 

These meditations are full of sweetness and 
light. Everyone passing through any of the 
,l Valleys" who will stop long enough under the 
shade of a tree, or on the bank of a rippling 
streamlet, to read one of these touching and 
tender meditations, will find the burden of care 
lightened. 

We can only see what our eyes have been 
trained to see. To " see Him as He is " involves 
our becoming " like Him." This demands the 
training of the spiritual eye that its vision may 
be true and clear. To hear the music of the 
heavenly sphere, the ear of the soul must be 
tuned to the celestial chords which linger on 
the viewless air where the holy angels sing their 
glorious song. 

A gentle master of human feeling has here 
touched the strings of the human heart until it 
responds in harmony with the Mind of Christ. 

Alex. C. Garrett 

Bishop of Dallas 
Dallas, Texas 
February j, igi2 

[ix] 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. The Little Valleys .... 3 

II. Brotherly Love 7 

III. Goodness 9 

IV. Quietness 12 

V. The Love of God 14 

VI. We Shall Be Like Him ... 18 

VII. The Image of Christ ... 21 

VIII. Imagination 26 

IX. Intercession and Mediation . 29 

X. Values 33 

XL By the Waters of Babylon . 38 

XII. SURSUM CORDA 41 

XIII. The Presence of Jesus in the 

Blessed Sacrament ... 45 

XIV. Thanksgiving 50 

XV. Lent 53 

XVI. The Resurrection . . . . 57 

XVII. Called to be Saints .... 61 

XVIII. Generosity 66 

XIX. Time and Eternity .... 70 

[xi] 



CONTENTS 



XX. The Epistles to the Seven 

Churches 73 

I. To Ephesus 

II. To Smyrna 

III. To Pergamos 

IV. To Thyatira 
V. To Sardis 

VI. To Philadelphia 
VII. To Laodicea 

XXI. The Last Things .... 100 

XXII. Christmas 104 

XXIII. Childhood and Motherhood 109 

XXIV. Saint Mary the Virgin: 

Mother of God . . . 113 

XXV. In the Face of Jesus Christ 119 

XXVI. Death 122 

XXVII. A Mountain Reverie . . . 127 



The Singer's Hills . . . Helen Jackson 



[xii] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



" Thy lovely saints do bring Thee love 
Incense and joy and gold: 
Fair star with star, fair dove with dove, 
Beloved by Thee of old. 
I, Master, neither star nor dove 
Have brought Thee sins and tears ; 
Yet, I, too, bring a little love 
Amid my flaws and fears. 
A trembling love that faints and fails 
Yet still is love of Thee ; 
A wondering love that hopes and hails 
Thy boundless love of me. 
Love kindling faith and pure desire 
Love following on to bliss; 
A spark, Jesu, from Thy fire, 
A drop from Thine abyss." 



[2] 



I 

THE LITTLE VALLEYS 
Psalms lxv: n 



1. Consider some of the little valleys of 
life : — sickness, pain, grief, adversity, the 
loss of friends. Sometimes, rarely, we are 
allowed to go up into the mountain, and see, 
afar ofT, the land of Promise. But first we 
must go down into the little valleys. 

2. Sickness — with its long period of 
anxiety and suspense, the dread of uncer- 
tainty, the touch of the Evil One. A call to 
Patience, Gentleness, LongsufTering. Him- 
self bore our sicknesses. He was wounded 
for our sins. Sickness is a call to endur- 
ance, to a share in the fellowship of His 
sufferings. 

[3] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



3. Pain — a trumpet call to enter a vast 
kingdom, in which we may share with our 
Blessed Redeemer the sorrows of the world, 
and through our union with Him also be 
made perfect — perfect through suffering — 

" — the lonely midnight's woe, 
That lurks 'neath laughter in the noontide clear." 

Pain that racks and rends, and bends the 
stubborn will — always strange, always cruel! 
But how often is this Via dolorosa the way to 
Peace! Sometimes it is as we pass on our 
way through this arid wilderness that we 
find the Holy Grail — 

" — the silent brave, who bear 
With smiles their burden of an unguessed pain." 

4. Grief — Jesus wept! We think of the 
Widow of Nain, of the little daughter of 
Jairus, of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, of 
the Blessed Mother standing at the foot of the 
Cross. We think of the coming of Grief to 
our own homes, of the agony of loss and sepa- 
ration. Yet, surely He hath borne our griefs. 

[4] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



Stern, unrelenting Grief has been softened, 
and she walks in the shadow of the Angel 
of Hope since Jesus took her by the hand. 

" — Grief's fearful, secret sword, 
That hides its piercing from the daylight's face" 

loses its edge as it is turned away and melts 
in the wounded Side of Christ our Lord. 

5. Adversity — sweet, indeed, are its uses! 
It is good for me, said David, that I have 
been in trouble. 1 Adversity means so many 
things, not only the blazoned sorrows, 

" That flaunt their purple in the market place," 

but nameless sorrows and the ills, and plaints, 
and moanings known only to the Eternal. 
He sees those weeping ones who share 

" Their tears with others, in a mingled rain, " 

and the King of Pain and the Destroyer of 
Adversity sees the silent brave, and when 
it is darkest He shows them His Face and 
adversity melts away in the Vision of the 
Uncreated Loveliness. 

1 Psalms cxix: 71. 

[si 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



6. The loss of friends. A friend is a treas- 
ure. Friendship is not to be lightly made 
nor readily given up. We say it breaks our 
heart when our friends forsake us and we 
know not why. But it is when our father 
and mother forsake us that the Lord 
taketh us up. 1 Perhaps as years roll on 
and friendship deepens, we shall be ready 
to learn detachment. Perhaps we may learn 
to love our friends in Christ. So from the 
little valleys of our life we shall ascend 
the mountain steeps, and as we lose our life 
for His sake we shall find it. And then the 
valleys shall stand so thick with corn that 
they shall laugh and sing. 2 

'Their source is on the mountains, 

The streams of which we drink; 
But we must tread the valleys, 

If we would reach the brink. 
Their source is on the mountains, 

Higher than feet can go ; 
Yet human lips but touch them, 

In the valleys, still and low." 

1 Psalms xxvii : 12. 2 Psalms lxv: 13. 

[6] 



BROTHERLY LOVE 



II 
BROTHERLY LOVE 

Hebrews xiii: I 

I. The parable of the Good Samaritan 
illustrates perhaps better than any other 
Gospel narrative the meaning of brotherly 
love. Merely as human beings we are all 
brethren. In the extremity of need the 
Samaritan ministered to the wayfaring Jew. 
So all caste and class distinctions disappear 
as the individual soul stands naked before 
God. We owe something to each other 
whenever an appeal is made for help. Em- 
perors and kings, captains of finance and 
soldiers of fortune, the well-born heir and 
the foundling child, the wise man and those 
we call "God's fools" — the simple-minded 
and the unlettered — are all precious in His 
sight. God made them. Whether or not 
they call Him Lord, He overrules their life. 

[7] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



2. Because God says, All souls are Mine, 1 
we must hold every soul to be deserving of 
brotherly love. The work of God the Holy 
Ghost is to restore the lost Image of God in 
the souls of men. Not until we wake up in 
His likeness shall we be satisfied. We are 
never to say that this or that one "is not 
worth while." Have we not all known what 
the world calls fallen men and fallen women ? 
Our daily experience and knowledge of the 
worlds which ripen with age, prove the 
doctrine of the Fall of Man. Yet Christ 
thought it worth while to die for the fallen. 
Brotherly love forbids any soul being called 
worthless. We have no merit of our own. 
Whatever there is in a man deserving of 
honor, or respect, or praise, or mention, or 
attention; whatever he has that is noble, 
or estimable, or virtuous has been the out- 
come of grace — God's free gift. 

3. Let us strive to become God's wor- 

1 Ezek. xviii: 4. 
[8] 



GOODNESS 



thies. Let us esteem every man better 
than ourselves. There is a sense in which 
every man is his brother's keeper. Can- 
not we help some brother to be a worthier 
Christian? Is there not a noblesse oblige 
about the attitude we should take towards 
our fellow-men ? Christ is our Elder Brother. 
The brethren of the Lord are our brethren. 
We are to bear one another's burdens, and 
so fulfil the law of Christ. 1 



Ill 

GOODNESS 

Psalms cxlv: 7 

1. God only is good in Himself. 2 Being 
God, He is what He ought to be and pos- 
sesses all that God ought to possess, abso- 
lutely. The goodness of God is manifested 
by His attributes. Love, wisdom, power, 

1 Gal. vi: 2. 2 S. Luke xviii: 19. 

[9] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



justice, mercy, beauty, eternity are insep- 
arable from the character of God, and these 
are manifested to us in what we call His 
providence. Thou, Lord, hast made me glad 
through Thy works: and I will rejoice in 
giving praise for the operations of Thy 
hands. 1 

2. Goodness is something really positive, 
not the negative or uncertain quality we 
hear so often referred to in the cant phrase, 
"He is a good man." Goodness is Godli- 
ness — God-likeness. We should be as fin- 
ical in applying this adjective good, or in 
speaking of a man's goodness, as in calling 
anyone our friend. The Holy Ghost bore 
witness that Saint Barnabas was a good 
man: he was full of the Holy Ghost and 
of faith. He was generous, not covetous. 
What an epitaph Acts XI: 24 would make, 
could it be written truly, on the tomb of 
every Christian man! 



1 Psalms xcii: 4. 

[10] 



GOODNESS 



3. There is a supernatural quality in 
real goodness — the quality of grace, which 
makes a good man gracious. A good man is 
God's gentleman. He has about him some 
of the atmosphere of other-worldliness. 1 
He lives as seeing Him Who is invisible, as 
recognizing his heavenly citizenship. His 
will inclines to the Will of God, and love is 
the measure of his deeds, which are done out 
of a pure heart. His duty to God is his 
first thought always. He studies how best 
to perform his duty to his neighbor, not 
occasionally, but every day; to be true and 
just in all his dealings; to hurt nobody by 
word or deed; to guard even his thoughts. 
He bears no malice or hatred in his heart, 
for love, which is akin to goodness, think- 
eth no evil. He always puts the best 
interpretation upon the actions of other 
men. He judges not, neither does he con- 
demn. He is compassionate with the mercy 



1 Heb. xi: 27. 

[11] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



of Christ, merciful, pitiful. He is clothed 
with the garment of humility. He is given 
to hospitality, without grudging; he gives 
alms as to a friend. He maketh much of 
them that fear the Lord. His delight is 
in the Lord, and hungering and thirsting 
after righteousness, his soul becomes at 
length filled with goodness. 



IV 

QUIETNESS 

Isaiah xxx: 15; xxxii: 17 

I . Consider the need of quietness, stillness, 
calmness, tranquillity in the daily life of a 
Christian. How different is the disquietude 
of this world, in which we are strangers and 
pilgrims — sojourners — where there is so 
much jar and fret and turmoil! In quietness 
and in confidence shall be thy strength. 1 

1 Isaiah xxx: 15. 

[12] 



QUIETNESS 



A meek and quiet spirit should be the habit- 
ual ornament or condition of a Christian's life. 
The spirit of the world is unrest. We pray 
to be delivered from the disquietude of this 
world. We possess a secret cause for tranquil- 
lity. One of the secrets of a happy life is that 
strange inward peace which assures a soul in 
grace of its nearness to and union with God. 

2. Consider the necessity of days or 
periods of quietness — retreat — when the 
soul deliberately seeks to detach itself from 
the world to be alone with God. At such 
times the heart is quickened with renewed 
affections, and the soul becomes like a newly 
tuned harp, ready to receive the cadences 
of heavenly music coming from the four 
winds and blown by the Breath of God. 
At such times our hearts burn within us and 
our communion with God is realized. Then 
God reveals Himself and His Will to us; our 
wills become more pliant and yielding and 
blended with the Divine Will. 

[13] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



3. Contemplate the joy of union with God; 
of our fellowship with the blessed saints, living 
and departed. " All One Body We." Quiet- 
ness helps us possess the Peace of God which 
passes all understanding. It is possible that, 
in a measure, this may be with us now. We 
are inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven now : 
we do not have to wait for Eternity. 

4. Let us endeavor to cultivate quietness, 
calmness, repose of manner, gentleness in 
speech, softness of voice, the practice of 
kindness, so that day by day we may be 
fitting ourselves for our appointed end, our 
destined goal — union with God. 

V 

THE LOVE OF GOD 

1 S. John iv: 16 

1. (a) The Love of God transcends all 
human experience. There will always be a 
supreme difference between the Divine and 

[Hi 



THE LOVE OF GOD 



human perfections. In the Godhead all 
the attributes and perfections of the Divine 
Nature are complete, uncreated. God is 
Love because He is God. God is Holy, 
Just, Merciful, Beautiful, because He is 
God. 

(b) The Glory of God consists in His 
being all in all. But the virtues of human 
nature are all created and derived. We 
have nothing that is not derived from 
the bounty of an all-loving and generous 
God. 

2. (a) The Love of God is manifested in 
the social life of the Ever-Blessed Trinity 
— the Divine Family, Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit. We see there perfect unity, 
peace, and concord. In the Son and in the 
Holy Ghost, the Eternal Father ever beholds 
His own Perfect Nature, for the Son is of 
one substance with the Father, and from the 
Holy Ghost flows the life of the world — 
He is the Lord, and Giver of Life. 

[iS] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



(b) All virtues are the fruits of the Holy- 
Spirit. Through the operation of the Holy 
Ghost we receive Eternal Life. In Bap- 
tism we are born of water and of the Holy 
Ghost, we are made partakers of the Divine 
Nature. 

(c) Then Christ Who is our life is given 
to us, and as, again, the Precious Blood is 
applied to our souls in Absolution, and in 
Holy Communion, we receive His Body and 
His Blood, the soul partakes of that abun- 
dant life which our Lord came to impart to 
us without stint. Human nature is limited 
and restricted; it has bounds which it can- 
not pass. But with God all things are pos- 
sible because He is their Source and Origin, 
and in Him are contained grace and virtue 
illimitable and inexhaustible. He has all 
things, and all things that are ours — life 
and all its possessions — are His gifts. We 
have, literally, nothing that is our own. 

3. There is a sweet grace about real 

[16] 



THE LOVE OF GOD 



gratitude. It is often quite difficult to re- 
ceive a gift graciously, and it is equally hard 
to say "Thank you," with fine courtesy. We 
are apt to be very self-sufficient. Let us 
practise a daily Act of Thanksgiving for the 
Divine Bounty, and so grow humble and 
truly thankful. If it be true that 
" We live as we give," 

and saints and martyrs have to their eternal 
joy proved that maxim — let us resolve to be 
daily more generous in thought, and word, 
and deed. If Love is giving, then let us give 
ourselves to God by our service to His breth- 
ren, in whom remains always some portion of 
the Divine Image — the mark of His Love. 

" I praise Thee while my days go on, 
I love Thee while my days go on; 
Through dark and dearth, through fire and frost, 
With emptied arms and treasure lost 
I thank Thee, while my days go on." 

— E. B. Browning. 



[17] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



VI 

WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM 

I S. John iii: 2 

1. Like Him! A true disciple should be 
easily discerned by his likeness to his 
Master. Consider that likeness as declared 
by the Beloved Disciple. The reward of 
him who overcometh the world shall be the 
Beatific Vision. Prophets and kings, all 
pilgrims of the night, have gone on the ro- 
mantic quest for the Holy Grail of the Chris- 
tian. We love and worship a God Whom 
we have never seen. But all through our 
pilgrimage we are cheered and encouraged 
by the ever-flaming beacon of hope, and in a 
flash of new revelation, the wonderful mean- 
ing of the Divine mystery of His love is 
discovered. Our life in God is a condition 
of constant surprises. The Divine Imagi- 
nation is inexhaustible, and the devices of 

[18] 



WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM 

Divine Love transcend and exceed the de- 
sires and limitations of our little minds. 

2. Likeness consists in resemblance, sim- 
ilarity. Just as a child resembles his father 
in looks, manner, gesture, the tone of his 
voice, his way of doing things, in thoughts, 
desires, aspiration, qualities of character, 
achievement. And we shall be like Him! 
That Divine Image is enshrined in the heart 
of every disciple, not to be imitated in the 
way that a mimic imitates his character, but 
to be reproduced, by the power of the Holy 
Ghost within us, for we are temples of God 
the Holy Spirit. 1 We are to be torches, 
bearing the flame of Divine Love to others. 
No man liveth unto himself. Our Lord 
surprised Philip when He said to him, Hast 
thou not known Me, Philip ? He that hath 
seen Me hath seen the Father. 2 

3. So, again, we must co-operate with the 
Divine Spirit in the development of this 

1 1 Cor. iii: 16. 2 S. John xiv: 9. 

[19] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



Likeness. We die to self and live to God. 
We live, but it is Christ Who lives in us. 1 
Our human passions are subdued by the 
Divine Affections. The Christian soldier 
constantly wars against his fleshly appe- 
tites and his spiritual foes. The seven 
deadly sins — deadly because they have the 
power to kill the soul — pride, covetousness, 
anger, envy, gluttony, lust, sloth, cause 
ugly images to rise before us. Let us en- 
gage each one in mortal conflict, until it is 
overcome and we have won the victory. 

4. We must not be discouraged when 
sometimes we fail, but we must rise and go 
forward. The ground is warm where the 
feet of Christ and the saints have trod. And 
the saints were men and women like ourselves. 
They endured, they fought a good fight, they 
persevered — unto the end. And when the 
end came they fell asleep, and the dream of 
this life vanished. We know that when we 



1 Phil, i: 21. 
[20] 



THE IMAGE OF CHRIST 



see Him we shall be like Him, for we shall 
see Him as He is. And He will know us 
by the likeness we bear to Himself! Suf- 
fering and trouble and loss will then be 
seen to have been instruments of joy — they 
only do their part in conforming our wills 
to the Divine Will — and at length we find 
ourselves possessed of Joy, which is trium- 
phant resignation to the Will of God. 

" I am an emptiness for Thee to fill — 
A cavern for Thy sea!" 



VII 

THE IMAGE OF CHRIST 

S. James iii: 9 

I. The Image of Christ is the Christian 
motive. The reproduction of that image is 
the Christian's work, in union with the Holy 
Ghost. Having this in mind we can say 

" Labor is sweet, for Thou hast toiled ; " 

[21] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



the toil of Christ has sweetened and light- 
ened the labor of every task we assumed. 
Our aim is to be like Him. If we are to see 
Him as He is, we must be like Him. Other 
men are to find Christ through us, because 
they have seen Him in us. So we are lamps 
within which the Light of the World burns. 1 

2. Our consecration begins at our Bap- 
tism. Because God made us we are all His 
creatures; He is our Father. But by Bap- 
tism a more personal relation is established, 
and a soul becomes the child of God. Man 
is then born again and admitted into the 
family of God, set apart and consecrated 
for his supernatural preferment. The debt 
and obligation of the creature to the Cre- 
ator is acknowledged; a covenant is con- 
cluded. 

3. Three conditions determine this rela- 
tionship: we promise repentance, faith and 
obedience. 



1 S. Matt, v: 14. 
[22] 



THE IMAGE OF CHRIST 



(a) As Jesus was made sin for us, 1 in Whom 
was no sin, we must partake of real sorrow 
for all sin. We must be sorry for our own 
sins. We each have a vicarious work to do 
in sorrowing for the sins of others. While 
we were yet sinners Christ died for us. a 
Herein is love, not that we love Him, but 
that He loved us. 3 We love Him because 
He first loved us. It is all passing strange. 
But we must be like Him. Innocent, He 
suffered for the guilty. We are bound to 
share the penitence of our race. So also by 
suffering grief wrongfully are we permitted 
to participate in the sufferings of Christ 
which He left behind. 4 It is a charitable 
act of devotion to make an Act of Contri- 
tion daily, not only for our own sins, but 
for the sins of our fellows. We can indi- 
vidualize this act and in our intention offer 
it to God for another by name. This will 

1 2 Cor. v: 21. 3 i S. John iv: io. 

2 Rom. v: 8. 4 Col. i: 24. 

[23] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



help us to appreciate the value of inter- 
cession. 

(J?) By faith and by grace we are saved. 1 
By faith mountains are still removed. By 
faith the early martyrs endured all things 
as seeing Him Who is invisible. By faith 
Christians of the present time are to bear 
witness to the Truth and overcome the world, 
and wrest victory from earthly conflict, and 
find that unearthly joy no man can take 
away. In the life of the soul we are to reit- 
erate the Creed of the Christian, and by 
our constant affirmation of our Belief, sing 
our daily hymn to Christ as God. Faith 
brings knowledge. We were made to know 
God. By faith, too, we believe that we shall 
know even as we are known. The value of 
daily Acts of Faith deepens with advancing 
years, as the shadows lengthen. 

(c) Obedience lies at the foundation of 
the Christian life. We must obey even 

1 Ephes. ii: 8. 

[24] 



THE IMAGE OF CHRIST 



where we cannot see. In a sense we shall 
always be like children. The questions of a 
child may not always be answered as we 
would reply to an elder. So we have some- 
times to see through a glass darkly. The 
Will of God reveals itself to us slowly and 
wins approval by degrees. A right notion 
of the sovereignty of God will help us through 
many a dark hour. God must often deal 
with us as with children — we must never 
forget, come what may, He is our Father 
and He loves us. So, Voluntas Dei shall be 
our daily aspiration and our Act of Love, 
our daily Act of Obedience. So the Image 
of Christ is formed within us, and having 
this Ideal before us we must keep ourselves 
from idols and hope to say with Saint Paul, 
ere we have finished our course: I live, yet 
not I, but Christ liveth in me. 1 

1 Gal. ii: 20. 



[2Sl 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



VIII 

IMAGINATION 

Psalms cxxxix: 6 

1. Tennyson was one day leaning over a 
rustic bridge, listening to the purling water 
beneath and gazing with a poet's eye into 
its limpid, crystal stream, gleaming in the 
sunshine, gliding in and out between the 
sticks and stones and crevices of a wood- 
land brook, and as he gazed he turned and 
said to a companion, "What an imagination 
God must have!" 

2. Consider the work of Creation as in- 
stancing the infinite variety and fertility 
of the Divine Imagination, its richness, its 
abundance, its illimitable and boundless 
resource, its vast, immeasurable scope. The 
stars in the blue vaults of the sky — unnum- 
bered worlds. The mountain fastnesses. 

The fathomless, widespreading waters of the 

[26] 



IMAGINATION 



sea. The trees of the forest and the flowers 
that bloom. The Holy Angels and their 
ninefold choirs. Man, made of body, soul, 
and spirit, with a mind stamped with the 
Divine Image 1 — a mind to know God, a 
will to serve Him, a heart to love Him. 
Variety in unity and Unity in variety. 

3. Consider some of the powers of Imagi- 
nation. It is a creative faculty. It is the 
power of conceiving and expressing the Ideal. 
It is expressed in the work of the composer, 
the songs without words of many a great 
musician, or the canvas of many an artist, in 
the sculpture of another, in the voiceless 
music which a true poet has woven into the 
inadequate words with which he has sought 
to sing his song. Unexpected combinations 
of thought, startling contrasts, flashes of 
brilliant imagery now and again dazzle the 
conceptions of the mind of man. The Divine 
is ever and again shining through us, for as 



1 Gen. i: 26. 

[27] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



man is "a thought of God expressed in 
time," he always carries with him a portrait 
of the Divine Likeness. 

4. (a) Imagination is of three kinds: 
joined with belief of that which is to come; 
joined with memory of that which is past; 
and of that which is present, or as if they 
were present. Because it is the image- 
making power of the human mind, and has 
the power of creating pictures drawn by 
fancy, and of becoming the shrine of for- 
bidden idols, and the storehouse of unlawful 
desires, it is necessary for us to guard our 
imagination: — 

" Guard thou thy thoughts 
For thoughts are heard in Heaven." 

(b) Our thoughts express purpose, inten- 
tion, and design : it is often true that we are 
what we think. Our thoughts can be high 
and holy, or low and base. A child once told 
a priest in a mission that she had learned for 

the first time that one could sin in thought. 

[28] 



INTERCESSION AND MEDIATION 

How unwilling would most of us be to have 
all our daily thoughts, all the imaginings 
of our hearts displayed upon a lantern 
screen! 

5. Pray God to cleanse and guide our 
powers of imagination — that we may daily 
have grace to think and to do those things 
that are right. 



IX 
INTERCESSION AND MEDIATION 

Hebrews vii: 25; xii: 24 

I. Consider the necessity of Intercession 
and Mediation. Christ is our High Priest 
Who ever liveth to make intercession for us, 
and He is our One Mediator with the Father. 
God has so willed it. We can only go direct 
to Him in intercession. This intercession 
is only acceptable through our High Priest, 
our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, No man 

[29] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



cometh unto the Father, but by Me. 1 And, 
Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My 
Name, He may give it you. 2 We have not 
because we ask not. With God nothing 
shall be impossible. 3 Ask, and it shall be 
given unto you. 4 

2. We love those lines in which we sing, — 

" Intercessor, Friend of Sinners, 
Earth's Redeemer, plead for me." 

In them we acknowledge Christ's Office as 
our Great High Priest. Entered within the 
Veil, He still intercedes, still pleads for us. 
And the gifts He receives, by virtue of the 
Incarnation He is always bestowing upon 
us. We are not worthy to ask, but He is 
worthy not only to ask, but to receive all 
things. 

3. It is a great thing to have a Friend at 
Court. It is in the Court of Heaven that 
we most need a Friend. There the Divine 

1 S. John xiv: 6. 8 S. Luke i: 37. 

2 Ibid, xv: 16. 4 S. Matt, vii: 7. 

[30] 



INTERCESSION AND MEDIATION 

Redeemer is our Mediator — our Go-between 
— our Advocate. The Son of the Father's 
love is invincible. He carries with Him 
the bright marks of His Passion; the Sacred 
Wounds still cry aloud; His Precious Blood, 
poured out for us, still speaketh better 
things than the blood of Abel. 1 By His 
blood-shedding He hath made for us full, 
perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, Oblation, 
and Satisfaction for the sins of the whole 
world. 

4. So we carry to our Lord all our sor- 
rows. The sorrows of the world are ever 
being laid before Him and upon Him. They 
are the mystical form of the Cross which 
He bore to Calvary. Let us go to Him 
freely. He knows what is in man. He is 
the Son of Man as well as the Son of God. 
The Son of Mary tasted the depths of human 
woe. He sees sin in all its actual hideous- 
ness, and he knows its dreadful effects and 

1 Heb. xii: 24. 

[31] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



consequences. From all this He would 
save us. Our tongue cleaves to the roof of 
our mouth, but as we cry, Lord, save us: 
we perish, 1 we shall hear His Voice. It is 
our little faith, our want of faith, that 
often keeps us back. All that Jesus has He 
would give to us. 

5. Intercession is, too, a labor of love. 
We partake of the priesthood of interces- 
sion by our union with Christ. 

"More things are wrought by prayer 
Than this world dreams of." 

We are to do our part not only for our 
own selfish souls, but for the salvation of 
the souls of other men. We are to be 
instant in prayer, we are to pray without 
ceasing. 2 A Bishop of the Church once told 
us that he had days which he set apart in 
every year for intercession in behalf of all 
he had ever confirmed, praying for each of 
them by name. Many never pray, and no 

1 S. Matt, viii: 25. 2 1 Thess. v: 17. 

[32] 



VALUES 

prayers are offered for these unknown souls, 
living or dying, save the prayers of the 
Church, who with charity includes all men 
in her intercession. 

6. Resolve to keep the fast-days and days 
of abstinence, provided for in the Prayer 
Book, as days of extraordinary acts of devo- 
tion, and let these extraordinary occasions 
be occasions of particular intercession for 
others, that this charitable work may de- 
velop into a habit of our daily life. 



X 

VALUES 

S. Matt, xvi: 26 

1. Value and worth are two words deserv- 
ing more than ordinary consideration from 
men with immortal souls. Value comes 
from a root meaning to be strong, to be 
worth. In political economy exchangeable 

[33] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



value is that in an article or product which 
disposes individuals to give for it some 
quantity of labor, or some article or pro- 
duct obtainable by labor. And in an artis- 
tical composition, its value is the character 
of any one part in its relation to other 
parts and to the whole. So the value of a 
man's soul to himself depends upon what he 
is willing to exchange for it and upon his 
estimate of the relative worth of the values 
of his various relationships to mankind and 
to God. What is my soul worth to me? 
Its value is to be computed by the Crucifix; 
we look at that and see what our redemption 
cost our Father. The Sacrifice of Calvary 
is the standard of appraisal! 

2. Worth is that quality which renders a 
thing valuable — value in respect of moral or 
personal qualities. To have worth one must 
possess merit, excellence, virtue; he must in 
some way always be distinguished for qual- 
ities that are estimable and meritorious. 

[34] 



VALUES 

3. Our Lord brings before us the consid- 
eration of the worth of the soul, and of the 
value we put upon those things which, some- 
times, men allow themselves to exchange for 
it, or for its assured salvation. Consider 
some of these — pleasure, riches, fame. 

{a) Pleasure. How we love to please our- 
selves — to gratify the senses, to amuse our- 
selves; sport, often exciting and dissipating 
in its participation and effects — lovers of 
pleasures more than lovers of God; 1 and sen- 
suality, — the pleasures of sin endure for 
a season. 2 We seek enjoyment, satisfac- 
tion, comfort, and delight in earthly things 
which are in reality fading away every mo- 
ment — the fashion of this world perisheth. 

(b) Riches — the accumulation of mate- 
rial possessions. To be well supplied with 
material possessions, to be wealthy, opu- 
lent, to have much goods and so to become 
powerful, to accumulate more than one's 

1 2 Tim. iii: 4. 2 Heb. xi: 25. 

[35] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



neighbor. How many know the miser's 
greed for gold and hoard their wealth with 
Christ standing cold and naked at the door, 
Christ Who for our sakes became poor! 1 
How hardly shall they that have riches 
enter into the kingdom of Heaven. 2 Think 
of dying, hugging our earthly treasures! 
Think of lying on our beds cherishing the 
notion of our riches and in a moment hear- 
ing the summons, "Thou fool, this night thy 
soul shall be required of thee!" 3 

(c) Fame — a foolish phantasm. Yet how 
many devote all the energies of this short 
life to its pursuit. How many clamor for 
notoriety and exchange the certainty of 
passionless renown for the clamorous shouts 
of Herod's sycophants — He is a god.* How 
many capable and valuable men and women 
"lose their heads" in the mad and foolish 
rush for fancied position and distinction 

1 2 Cor. viii: 9. 8 S. Luke xii: 20. 

2 S. Mark x: 23. 4 Acts xii: 22. 

[36] 



VALUES 

and celebrity! And we are the servants of 
Christ Who made Himself poor and of no 
reputation! 1 

4. We mostly purchase our notion of 
values in the school of bitter experience. 
One by one, God takes from us or denies us 
the things upon which we have set our 
hearts, that we may learn to appraise these 
at their true value and realize that in God 
alone we shall find the true pleasures, the 
true riches, — that by doing without these 
perishing things, we may be numbered with 
those whom the King delighteth to honor. 2 

It is the Christian's task to learn to suffer 
the loss of all things that he may win Christ. 
Whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and 
the gospel's, the same shall save it. 3 

1 Phil, ii: 7. 2 Esther vi: 6. 3 S. Mark viii: 35. 



[37] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



XI 

BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON 
Psalms cxxxvii: i 

1. The state of a man who is living in sin 
knowingly is that of an exile from home. 
He has expatriated himself: he is, like Bene- 
dict Arnold, a man without a country. He 
has no home; he has become an alien to his 
own kindred. He has gone out and closed 
the door after him. His lovers and friends 
stand afar off. In his heart he feels like a 
leper, and his soul cries out, Unclean, un- 
clean! While in this state he cannot know 
gladness. Joy has departed. The light has 
gone out, the way is dark, and the guilty 
sinner is, indeed, far from home. 

2. Babylon and Egypt are types of what 
we renounce in Holy Baptism as the world 
and sin. But the sinner forgets that the 
life of a Christian is a life of renunciation. 

[38] 



BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON 

Who has not come in contact and in conflict 
with the pomps and vanity of this wicked 
world and, at least, some of the sinful lusts 
of the flesh — the vain pomp and glory of 
the world? Day by day the ostentatious 
splendor and glitter of the world passes 
before us, like the pageantry of a solemn 
procession, but its objective point is Baby- 
lon, not Jerusalem. It fascinates, enchants, 
bewitches us, and if we do not rouse our- 
selves from its spell, it exerts an irresistible 
and uncontrollable influence upon us. It 
is all vain pomp we know — empty, worth- 
less, unsatisfying, unreal, delusive, trifling 
— but the man who finds himself by the 
waters of Babylon, unlike the children of 
Israel whose exile was compulsory, has him- 
self yielded to its allure. This fascinating 
world ! 

3. But by the waters of Babylon we may 
learn the value of Jordan and meditate, 
and repent, and long again for Zion. The 

[39] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



exile has wandered far from home, but in 
the distant land a light is still shining in 
the window for him. He has been holding 
his head down, so he could not see it. The 
wind, blowing where it listeth, has quivered 
over his dry and sinful soul, and even as 
he lies by the arid wayside, the Good 
Samaritan comes along and pours in Oil 
and Wine. At length he arises and returns. 
The gates of the City where shall be his 
everlasting home shall not be shut at all 
by day, they are ever open for the exile 
who will return. 

4. Consider Renunciation as a daily duty 
of the Christian life. One of the vows of 
our Baptism was a vow of renunciation. 
Some things we must abjure, some pleas- 
ures we must reject. By the waters of Baby- 
lon we learn this, and he who once sees the 
Face of Christ and hears His voice calling 
him will abandon all, as he feels the com- 
pelling attraction of that in which he can 

1 40 1 



SURSUM CORDA 



alone truly glory — the Cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ — 

"... 'tis a blossoming rod 
That drives us to grace from disgraces, 
From the fens to the gardens of God!" 



XII 

SURSUM CORDA 

Psalms cxxi 

i. Above the lintel of a little country 
church, overlooking the mountains and per- 
petual hills of one of the best known 
mountain ranges, is carved this inscription, 
Sursum Corda — lift up your hearts. It 
greets one going in and is an inspiration and 
call to enjoy all that is within. And going 
out, one literally lifts up his eyes unto the 
hills. The hills beyond are figures of the little 
hill of Calvary. Within, his eyes have be- 
held Calvary itself — the Christian altar — 

[41] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



around which pilgrims gather every day to 
pour out their hearts before God, to give 
to Him their thanks for His great glory, to 
praise, to bless, and to magnify Him. There, 
hungry souls come to be fed with the true 
Bread which came down from Heaven, to 
drink of that Living Water of Life, freely. 
They come there hungry and thirsty, their 
souls fainting within them. They cry unto 
the Lord in their trouble, and He delivers 
them out of their distress. 1 

2. (a) Every Christian sometimes experi- 
ences periods of dryness. The movement of 
the soul becomes sluggish, and the fire of 
ardent spirits grows dull and smouldering. 
The sweetness of our religion cloys. Inter- 
est wanes. Love grows cold. It is not 
that we do not care, but the experience of 
every soul carries one through the changes of 
the season, Spring and Summer, and Autumn 
and Winter. We must pass through each 



1 Psalms cvii: 6. 

[42] 



SURSUM CORDA 



season of the Christian year. Through 
each, Sursum Corda is ringing in our ears, 
like the note of a sweet bell. 

(b) Spring is like the beginning of things, 
new joy and surprise unfolding and disclos- 
ing to our astonishment and wonder the 
marvels of God's inexhaustible treasure- 
house of grace. New flowers are always 
budding; some new, fresh fragrance is ever 
delighting us. Spring is always bubbling 
over with new life and exhilaration. 

(c) Summer comes with its fulfilment of 
promise. The grain ripens, and the flower 
bears its fruit. We eat of the labor of 
our hands and are satisfied. We have our 
share in the ingathering of the harvest. 
We rejoice in the fulness of things. It is a 
period of thanksgiving. 

(d) Then there comes a crispness in the 
air, and the days shorten, and the darkness 
gathers. Autumn comes. The leaves fall, 
even as sometimes our hopes wither. Nature 

[43] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



begins to prepare for its Winter's sleep. 
There is a minor note in the music of the 
Autumn. Opportunities have been lost, 
never to come again. We wonder if we have 
neglected the time of our visitation. 

(e) And now it is Winter. The wind 
blows and the snow falls, and the brown earth 
is covered with its mantle of white. The 
streams are frozen. Life sleeps. A call to 
the sleeper summons him to waken. 

3. Or we may think of the little day of 
our life, the seven ages of man reducing 
themselves to the familiar routine of every 
day, morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. 
Each season, each portion of the day with 
its appointed task, its appointed recreation, 
its trials, its hopes, its fears. But Sursum 
Corda is always ringing within us to cheer 
and encourage and sustain us. 

"Just why I suffer loss 
I cannot know; 
I only know my Father 
Wills it so. 

[44] 



THE PRESENCE OF JESUS 

He leads me in paths I cannot understand; 
But all the way I know is wisely planned. 
My life is only mine 

That I may use 
The gifts He lendeth me 
As He may choose. 
And if in love some boon He doth recall, 
I know that unto Him belongeth all. 
I am His child, and I 

Can safely trust; 
He loves me, and I know 
That He is just. 
Within His love I can securely rest, 
Assured that what He does for me is best." 

4. Try to believe that "to travel hope- 
fully is a better thing than to arrive, and the 
true success is to labor." 



XIII 

THE PRESENCE OF JESUS IN THE 
BLESSED SACRAMENT 

Psalms xvi: 11 

1. In Thy Presence is fulness of joy. 
Presence belongs only to some personality. 

[45] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



Before entering into a king's chamber we 
speak of going into The Presence. God is 
everywhere, i.e., everything is present before 
God. But in a special and sacramental 
manner God is present in the Blessed Sac- 
rament of His love, in the Person of Jesus 
Christ. Every church is God's House, and 
consequently most holy. But there is a 
difference, no matter what the grandeur of 
some stately fane or the poverty of some 
remote mission chapel, when before the altar 
burns the light to signify the Presence of the 
King of Kings, in the habiliments of Bread 
and Wine, with which He has willed to veil 
Himself. Verily Thou art a God that hid- 
est Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. 1 

2. This shall be my rest forever, here 
will I dwell, for I have a delight therein. 2 
The wayfarer echoes these words of David, 
as he kneels in the silent House of God, 
before the Gate of Heaven. God cannot 

1 Isa. xlv: 15. 2 Psalms cxxxii: 15. 

U6] 



THE PRESENCE OF JESUS 

be circumscribed or limited, yet of His own 
Will He became clothed in Human Flesh at 
the Incarnation. So in a transcendent man- 
ner God the Son hides His Glorified Human- 
ity beneath the veil of His sweet Sacrament 
of Peace. Now, we see through a glass 
darkly; l then, we shall see Him as He is. 2 
Kneeling before Him in the silent church, 
pouring out our heart's desires before the 
holy Shrine, encompassed, doubtless, by a 
heavenly company of angelic spirits, we 
think of the love of His Sacred Heart — 
His human heart, beating like ours. And 
we feel that it beats with ours in understand- 
ing our voiceless prayer, our spirit's yearn- 
ings; we find in His answering sympathy 
the interpretation of those strange words, I 
sleep, but my heart waketh. 3 My Pres- 
ence shall go with thee, and I will give thee 
rest. 4 

1 1 Cor. xiii: 12. * Cant, v: 2. 

2 1 S. John iii: 2. 4 Exodus xxxiii: 14. 

[47] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



3. Before the Blessed Sacrament we are 
in heavenly places. We are nearer Home 
when we are in the Presence than anywhere 
else on earth. 

" O make our hearts Thy dwelling place." 

Little tokens of our love are around Him. 
Instead of unguents for burial, we bring the 
incense, and sweet flowers, and lights — 
little acts of reparation to make beautiful 
His earthly Tabernacle; raiment of needle- 
work, the stitches wrought with prayer. 
Wherever God is, He is to be adored. 1 So on 
bended knee we adore the Invisible Pres- 
ence. We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we 
glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for 
Thy great glory. The sanctuary is holy 
ground. The Christian Altar is the Shekinah 
of the New Dispensation. The Sacrifice of 
the Altar is a commemorative sacrifice. At 
the Altar we behold Calvary. Every day, 
as the faithful Priest re-presents the drama 



1 Jeremy Taylor. 

[48] 



THE PRESENCE OF JESUS 

of Good Friday, is fulfilled the Divine com- 
mand, Do this in remembrance of Me. 1 
The memory of God is in some mysterious 
way quickened, as the death of His dear 
Son is portrayed in sacramental act. 

4. Therefore here will we seek Him Whom 
our soul desires to love. Early in the morn- 
ing will I seek Thee. 2 Seven times a day will 
I praise Thee. Here, slumbering not nor 
sleeping, the King watches over His own 
Israel, the peculiar people of God. Let us 
humble ourselves before Him, and as Love 
begets Love, give Him of His own, for He is 
perpetually giving His Own to us, in every 
communion, every absolution, every bless- 
ing. Blessed, praised, and adored be Jesus 
Christ upon His throne of glory and in the 
most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Lord, 
I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. 3 

1 1 Cor. xi: 24. 2 Psalms lxiii: 1. 3 S. Mark ix: 24. 



[49] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



XIV 

THANKSGIVING 
Psalms cxvi: 12 

1. What reward shall I give unto the 
Lord: for all the benefits that He hath done 
unto me? I will receive the cup of salva- 
tion; and call upon the Name of the Lord. 
In the Te Deum we sing, We give thanks to 
Thee for Thy great glory. Thanksgiving is 
an essential part of Prayer, a necessary part 
of Praise. We can add nothing to the essen- 
tial glory of God, but we must pay our due 
thanks to the Most High, so subscribing to 
His accidental glory. All things come of 
Thee, Lord, and of Thine own have we 
given Thee. 1 

2. Consider the reasonableness and obli- 
gation of Thanksgiving. The ten are ever 
being cleansed; the nine receive their gifts 



1 1 Chron. xxix: 14. 

[So] 



THANKSGIVING 



as largess, so does the tenth: one in ten 
returns thanks. Ingratitude is one of the 
commonest, basest, and most ignoble of 
faults; it is one of the frequent sins of omis- 
sion, common nearly to all, confessed only 
by a very few. It would be well for us to 
make this a subject for frequent self-exam- 
ination. A daily Act of Thanksgiving would 
be a good preparation for a weekly Com- 
munion. "My God, I thank Thee for all 
the blessings Thou hast sent me, this day and 
through my whole life." 

3. Consider the unworthiness of our grat- 
itude: we ask God to pardon our lowliness. 
It is in the Holy Eucharist — the Great 
Thanksgiving — that our Kyries and Glorias 
are joined together and transmuted, by 
union with the Sacrifice of Calvary, into an 
Act of Thanksgiving worthy of acceptance 
by the Most High. The cup of salvation 
becomes the libation and the medium of our 
service. The Lamb of God offers Himself in 

[Si] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



our stead, and as our High Priest offers an 
acceptable Sacrifice. He is our Peace. 

4. Consider Thanksgiving as a joyous 
expression of our Love. Divine Love ex- 
pends itself upon us with a Divine lavishness. 
The Divine generosity transcends human 
thought: it is clean contrary to human mean- 
ness and worldly considerations of expedi- 
ency. God spared not His own Son: so 
God loved the world. From that great 
Act of Sacrifice flowed the grace that 
makes saints. A thankful heart is a mark 
of holiness. Words are such feeble things, 
but thoughts have wings, and on the wings 
of love the pious soul again and again 
can offer his thanksgivings for all the 
benefits of God's unceasing and unfailing 
generosity. 

5. Resolve to make a daily Act of Thanks- 
giving and, as we reckon our sins, to reckon 
also the manifold gifts of God, for which, 
as they accumulate, we give thanks in our 

[52] 



LENT 

weekly Eucharist. Cultivate a habit of 
saying, Thank you! Frequent Communions 
are our best Thanksgiving. 



XV 

LENT 

S. Mark vi: 31 

1. Lent is a season for deepening the 
fellowship of the soul with God. My soul 
thirsteth for God. 1 It is a season, too, for 
deepening our realization of our fellowship 
with the saints. We are all called to be 
saints, but in front of every halo we see the 
awful warning: Many are called, but few are 
chosen. 2 Yet if we are not chosen, it will 
be because we have neglected our Lents. 
The feasts and festivals of the Christian 
Year please us, but ease and pleasure are 
not to be the daily portion of Christians. 

1 Psalms xlii: 2. 2 S. Matt, xxii: 14. 

[S3] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



God is to be found everywhere truly, but we 
shall find Him oftenest where there is some 
sign of His Cross — where are to be found 
some of His tokens — some of the marks 
of the Lord Jesus. 1 Lent is a call to self- 
denial. 

2. Let us consider some of these marks: 
loneliness, temptation, self-restraint — mor- 
tification. 

(a) Our Lord's life was singularly lonely. 
It was mostly a hidden life (much as most of 
our own life is hidden, except to God and the 
angels). Verily Thou art a God that hid- 
est Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. 2 
There was the obscurity of Bethlehem, the 
long exile in the Land of Darkness, the hid- 
den life of labor at Nazareth, the forty days 
in the desert with the wild beasts — mys- 
tical figures of our passions, stormy and rebel- 
lious — which must be subdued and brought 
under the Law of Christ! 

x Gal. vi: 17. 2 Isa. xlv: 15. 

[54] 



LENT 

(b) We shrink from the trials of tempta- 
tion; not so Christ. With no other armor 
than that with which He clothes all soldiers 
of the Cross He went forth to the fight, 
conquering and to conquer. 

"Save in the flesh Thou wouldst not come 
to me." In the flesh He fought our fight; 
as Man He battled with our common foe. 
Man shall not live by bread alone! 1 The 
kingdoms of this world must be overcome; 
their power to inthrall us must be defeated. 
So, too, from the pinnacle of the Temple 
He would not tempt the Lord His God 
Whose loving Providence, even then, was 
overshadowing Him, Whose angels were 
really bearing Him in their hands. How 
much we are benefited by the ministry of 
these pure spirits we shall never know, until 
the day break and the shadows flee away! 2 

(c) Self-restraint — mortification. Jesus 
Christ was God Almighty — God manifest 

1 S. Luke iv: 4. 2 Cant, iv: 6. 

[55] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



in the flesh. 1 But He was always holding 
Himself back. So with His teaching: He 
had many things to say to His disciples, but 
He would only reveal Himself to them as 
they were able to bear and to hear. What 
a rebuke to our impetuosity, to our desire to 
make haste, to our impatience, to our discon- 
tent with progress made, to our dissatisfac- 
tion with the few results and achievements 
we are permitted to see. Our Lord's sole 
desire was to do His Father's will. 2 Shall 
we not try this Lent to write Voluntas 
Dei — the Will of God — on everything that 
we do? We must die to self to live to 
Christ. Each must learn for himself the 
strange meaning of our Lord's words, He 
that loseth his life for My sake shall find it. 3 
We must lose ourselves to find ourselves. 

3. Let us resolve to make this Lent, each 
for himself, a "sweet feast." It will be the 
last Lent for some of us; perhaps for me. 

1 1 S. Tim. iii: 16. 2 S. John iv: 34. 3 S. Matt, x: 39. 

[56] 



THE RESURRECTION 



Let me be a sharer in the loneliness of Jesus. 
Tempted, His strength is mine, if I will; 
I can do all things through Christ, Who 
strengtheneth me. 1 May I learn self-re- 
straint at least in one thing. By His grace 
I will mortify the deeds of the body and 
so find Him Whom my soul loveth, in the 
solitary way. 



XVI 
THE RESURRECTION 

S. Luke xxiv: 6 

I. Life is made up, very largely, of con- 
trasts. It is so from birth to death. The 
agonizing cry of pain is followed quickly by 
the crooning words of joy unspeakable — 
joy that a man is born into the world. So 
we have light and darkness, sunshine and 
shadow, pathos and bathos, life and death. 

1 Philipp. iv: 13. 

[57] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



But we sow in tears to reap in joy. 1 Pagan 
despair is reversed by Christian hope. Our 
Lord Himself has assured us that our sor- 
row shall be turned into joy. 2 We must 
press on in faith, knowing that while heavi- 
ness may endure for a night, joy cometh in 
the morning. 3 

2. (a) A minor note pervades the music 
of Lent, deepening as Passion-tide, Holy 
Week, and Good Friday approach. On 
Good Friday, when the Lamb of God is 
slain, all nature mourns; a supernatural and 
terrifying darkness covers the face of the 
earth, which quakes as Life meets Death and 
the Holy One yields up the ghost. In the 
after-light of Easter we can picture the hor- 
ror-stricken faces of the priests in the Temple, 
and we can imagine the consternation and 
dismay of Annas, Caiaphas, and Pontius 
Pilate during the Three Hours darkness. 
From the sixth to the ninth hour Procula's 

1 Psalms cxxvi: 5. 2 S. John xvi: 20. 8 Psalms xxx: 5. 

[58] 



THE RESURRECTION 



message to Pilate must have been the sub- 
ject of his unwilling meditation: Have 
thou nothing to do with that just man: for 
I have suffered many things this day in a 
dream, because of Him. 1 Does conscience 
accuse me, even now, because of Him ? 

(b) The Body of Jesus was taken down 
from the Cross at eventide. 2 It had been 
begged of the Roman Governor. How ten- 
der and loving was the preparation for 
burial. Only loving and reverent hands 
touched that Sacred Body, as It was wrapped 
in sweet spices and a linen shroud, and laid 
in the new garden-tomb of Joseph of Arima- 
thea — the Virgin Body, born of a spotless 
Virgin, laid at last in a virgin tomb! 

(c) Cannot we see the cohorts of angels 
which accompanied the spirit of Christ as 
it passed from Calvary to preach, as Saint 
Peter tells us, to the spirits in prison; 3 for 
the nonce turning the prison-house of Pur- 

1 S. Matt, xxvii: 19. 2 Ibid, xxvii: 57. 3 1 S. Pet. iii: 19. 

[59] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



gatory into Paradise — because of the Pres- 
ence there? There we behold transports 
of joyous thanksgiving, as the waiting souls 
behold their Deliverer, for Whose Evangel 
and Sacrifice they had been waiting — who 
knows? — thousands of troubled years. 

3. Then the strange, mysterious, un- 
earthly bliss and ecstasy of Easter morning, 
very early! x The Queen of Feasts, the 
Day of days! At the rising of the sun, 
the Sun of Righteousness came forth from 
the grave. The Body of the Holy One had 
seen no corruption. Now It burst the gates 
of Hell and rose triumphant, bringing with 
It the keys of Death and Hell. 2 Alive for 
evermore ! 

4. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from 
the dead is the pledge of our immortality. 
The Christian writes Resurgam upon his 
tomb, because he knows that his Redeemer 
liveth. The Resurrection is also an assur- 

1 S. John xx: 1. 2 Rev. i: 18. 

[60] 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS 



ance of man's resurrection in body, soul, and 
spirit. The frailty of our nature, frequent 
falls, gross sins of the flesh; higher sins of 
the soul, which lead to lower sins of the 
body; a rebellious spirit — I beheld Satan 
as lightning fall from Heaven x — all these 
have in them the seeds of death. But the 
Will of God was the Will of our Divine Sav- 
iour, and in Him we can, if we will, live 
and move, and have our being, now and 
through the ages of the ages, 

" Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven." 



XVII 

CALLED TO BE SAINTS 

Romans i: 7 

1. (a) A saint is the result of grace. A 
saint is one who every day strives so to con- 
form his will to the Will of God, that, like 

1 S. Luke x: 18. 

[61] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



Saint Paul, he can say truthfully, I live, yet 
not I, but Christ liveth in me. Grace is 
altogether the free gift of God. A saint so 
absorbs and assimilates the virtues of the 
supernatural life, that he gladly loses him- 
self, and so finds God. 

(b) It is a romantic and beautiful journey, 
full of adventure and surprise — the journey 
of the Christian soul as it goes on to God. 
To him who perseveres the Way of the Cross 
at last blossoms like the rose, and the solitary 
places rejoice and are glad, as the wayfarer 
realizes that He keepeth the feet of His saints. 
Daily he says, The Lord is mindful of His 
own. The Sacraments are means of grace, 
and the saint has used them all: he drinks 
deep from the well of life. He knows that 
his thirst will be slaked, his hunger satisfied. 
Someone has said that the Church can save 
sinners just because she knows how to make 
saints. In the worst sinner lie all the possi- 
bilities of the most perfect saint. 

[62] 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS 



(c) In the picture of the Good Shepherd — 
the true King of saints — lies that ineffable 
picture of the perfect Love of God, revealed 
to sinners in Jesus Christ their only Hope. 
The love of Christ constraineth us: 1 as we 
waken to its reality, we marvel at its magic 
wonder — while we were yet sinners Christ 
died for us, 2 died that we might respond 
to the Divine call. The Good Shepherd 
giveth His life for the sheep. 3 

2. (a) Consider the variety of saints — 
millions, as Faber says, 

"In their ranks and degrees" — 

just as one star differeth from another star 
in glory. So in the lowest as well as in the 
highest Heaven will the saints be found. 
Every people, nation, and language will 
furnish its divinely appointed quota, until 
the number of the elect is made up. 

(b) It is not necessary that a saint be con- 
spicuous. Often, the holiest saint attracts 
1 2 Cor. v: 14. 2 Rom. v: 8. 3 S. John x: 11. 

[63] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



little notice. He has learned the secret 
of the holiness of common life — life as it 
is lived every day. So he goes on his 
way scarcely noticed, because outwardly he 
appears to be so ordinary. But inwardly 
he walks and talks with God; with the eyes 
of his soul he sees angels, and sometimes he 
hears them and the music of Heaven, and 
he breathes the rare fragrance of the immor- 
tal flowers that bloom in the fair gardens 
of Paradise. And he always lives with the 
air of Heaven about him. 

3. Consider the patience of the saints. 
Patience means so many different things. 
It grows in such strange and unexpected 
ways. It has so many forms and colors — 
this beautiful virtue. It is born of trouble, 
sorrow, need, sickness, pain, calumny, adver- 
sity, love lost or never to be found on earth : 
great nameless troubles of the heart, and 
bitterness of soul. Patience grows as we 
clasp that blessed, particular Cross, the form 

[64] 



CALLED TO BE SAINTS 



of which God alone knows how to fashion 
for us. 

4. (a) Without holiness no man shall see 
the Lord. 1 Be ye perfect even as your 
Father in Heaven is perfect. Holiness is a 
passion for God and the things that belong 
to His ineffable Glory. Perfection, we are 
told, consists not in doing extraordinary 
things, but in doing ordinary things extraor- 
dinarily well; in going slowly; in doing all 
things, great or small, for the glory of God. 

(b) A saint is a friend of God, a friend who 
has become a lover, whose friendship has 
been set on fire and burns, evoked by that 
Divine fire which comes from the mysteries 
of the Eternal — that "fierce light that 
beats from the Throne" of God and con- 
sumes all earthly dross, until the utmost 
longings of the heart are satisfied. 

5. Resolve to praise God for the example 
of the saints, and pray for Perseverance. 



1 Heb. xii: 14. 

[65] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



How poor we should be with no ideals! 
"Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed 
in touching them with your hauids, but, like 
the seafaring man on the deserts of water, 
you choose them as your guides, and follow- 
ing them you reach your destiny." 



XVIII 

GENEROSITY 

S. Luke vi: 38 

I. Consider the scarcity of generosity. 
It is to very many an unknown grace. To 
be generous is to be indeed of high degree. 
It implies the quality popularly regarded as 
belonging to noble birth. A generous per- 
son loves those things that are excellent. 
He is not only high-spirited but magnani- 
mous. To be generous is to be the very 
opposite of niggardly, in every particular. 
A niggardly person is stingy, meanly close, 

[66] 



GENEROSITY 



— one who spends grudgingly — one whose 
smallest gift is blighted by parsimony and 
penuriousness. An ungenerous person is 
one who hardly handles a coin that he pays 
out, without inwardly wishing that it might 
be "nigged" — its edges clipped! 

2. A generous nature possesses kingly 
qualities. A generous man, when he can, 
gives as a king giveth to a king. He gives 
himself with his alms; he gives his alms as 
to a friend. He is open-handed because he 
is large-hearted. Avarice is hateful to him. 
Yet he is not a spendthrift, neither is he 
improvident. But he is lavish without being 
prodigal. A generous man gives generously 
because he loves much. One who truly 
loves cannot be mean, for love is giving, 
giving, giving all the time. 

3. Generosity is one of the attributes of 
the Divine Nature. God is a generous God. 
He has been giving through all Eternity. 
Creation is a token, with all its wonderful 

[67] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



profusion, of the generosity of the Eternal 
Father. The Incarnation was the crowning 
act of this Divine generosity: God so loved 
the world that He gave His only-begotten 
Son. 1 So the Divine Redeemer gave His 
Life for the salvation of the world, and the 
Divine generosity flows on unceasingly in 
the Sacraments and in all the multiform min- 
istries of love and grace. Good measure, 
pressed down, shaken together, and running 
over, 2 is the measure with which God metes 
out His favor towards us. Generous in His 
Eternal love; generous in His seeking for the 
erring, the wayward, and the lost; generous 
in His forgiveness, blotting out as a thick 
cloud our transgressions. I am come that 
they might have life, and that they might 
have it more abundantly* 

4. The consideration of this big word, 
generosity, calls us to a rigorous self-examina- 
tion of conscience. What has been our con- 

1 S. John iii: 16. 2 S. Luke vi: 38. 8 St. John x: 10. 

[68] 



GENEROSITY 



duct towards God, His Church and Christ 
within her, our brethren? We need not 
think of what others have not done, but we 
can, if we are honest with ourselves, sorrow 
for our glaring lack of generosity and pray 
that we may, by amendment and by repara- 
tion in this regard, some day know that 
rare and secret joy that fills the hearts of 
only the generous. 

" There came a request to give 

Of my scanty means to the Lord; 
I said, 'But then I must live, 

And to give I cannot afford ! ' 
I thought then of God's great love, 

How His gifts abide with me still; 
His home kept for me above, 

And my heart then said, ' But I will.' 
O soul, do you long to know, 

Of the very best way to live 
In this vale of tears below? 

It is this — ' We live as we give.'" 



[69] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



XIX 

TIME AND ETERNITY 

Isaiah lvii: 15. Revelation x: 6 
1. Man thinks, as we say, "in time, 3 



because he was created in time. But God 
is Eternal and with Him is no time. He 
always was, He is, and He ever shall be. 
He is the same Yesterday and Today and 
Forever. 1 With man there is past, present, 
and future: with God the great I AM, it 
is the eternal NOW. God had no beginning. 
But there was for me a time when, 

"God thought about me 
And so I grew." 

2. Time belongs only to this earthly, 
mortal life. When we die we shall pass 
from Time into Eternity. Our mortal is 
here clothed upon, 2 and we become immor- 
tal beings through Christ Who is our life. 

^eb. xiii: 8. 2 2 Cor. v: 2. 

[70] 






TIME AND ETERNITY 



Today and To-morrow belong to Time: in 
Eternity a thousand years are but as yester- 
day. 

3. We believe that nothing happens by 
chance. We did not just happen to be 
born. The creation of a human soul in 
time is an expression of the Will of God. 
So we must seek to find out the Divine pur- 
pose as expressed in our creation. God 
made me to know Him, to love Him, and to 
serve Him, and to be the object of His love. 
"To find God is the true romance of every 
soul." To find Him in time, that we may 
possess Him through all Eternity. To begin 
here to know Him, that forever and forever 
our knowledge may grow wider and deeper. 
To love Him with that wonderful love that 
begins to dawn within us as the knowledge 
of the Divine Attributes is revealed to us 
day by day with the knowledge of experi- 
ence, until we love Him more than Jona- 
than loved David — with that wonderful 

[71] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



love passing the love of women — with that 
deathless love from which neither life, nor 
death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate us. 1 

4. The mind reels at the thought of Eter- 
nity. Eternity is forever and a day. The 
circle in art is but a poor symbol — it only 
appears to have neither beginning nor end. 
To realize Eternity we have to think back 
to a beginning that never was, through the 
ages of the ages, and to look forward to a 
future which is future only to us, but which 
to the Eternal is an ever present. 

5. Resolve to live for Eternity — that is, 
to live in the constant hope of Eternal Life. 
Time is but for a moment. Pleasure is 
but for a moment. Sorrow is but for a 
moment. One day we shall fall asleep in 
Time, and when we waken, may that awak- 



1 Romans viii: 38, 39. 

[72] 



THE EPISTLE TO EPHESUS 

ening be in the light of the Land where there 
is no night. 

"O then the glory and the bliss, 
When all that pained or seemed amiss 
Shall melt with earth and sin away! 
When saints beneath their Saviour's eye, 
Fill'd with each other's company, 
Shall spend in love th' eternal day." 

— Keble. 



XX 

THE EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN 
CHURCHES 

I. TO EPHESUS 

Revelation ii: i 

I. The Epistles to the Seven Churches 
may be considered as of modern applica- 
tion to the life of the Christian today. 
The characters of the Old Testament, as well 
as of the New are all types: the story of the 
life of each is often an allegory or parable of 
man's life as it is today. Character develops 

[73] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



in us every day: so that the life of every day 
is of the utmost moment, 

"One step and then another, take thy way — 
Bear not thy yesterday into to-morrow;" 

yet today often makes to-morrow what it 
is. Learn the value and importance of 
trifles, little things. 

2. The Church in Ephesus was commended 
for her works, and labors, and patience. 
Very often we do poor work and hardly 
let ourselves exert ourselves sufficiently as 
we run our race, to know the agony and 
toil and weariness of labor. And impa- 
tience is one of our many national sins. 
The saints made haste slowly. The fever 
of hurry would often bring to-morrow into 
today. We seem sometimes to seek to 
force God's Hand — it is not our yearning 
desire to see God's Kingdom come — but 
we would bring things to a climax now, we 
cannot bear the things that are evil. We 
are often impatient with our neighbor, we 

[74] 



THE EPISTLE TO EPHESUS 

are impatient with ourselves — our progress 
in the development of character and virtue, 
with the poor use we make of grace — and if 
we would admit it, we are impatient with 
God because the thousand years of His 
eternal day always give us more time for 
working out our salvation, instead of less! 

3. So we leave our first love, — 

"By many deeds of shame 
We learn that love grows cold;" 

at certain milestones of our life we have 
paused, our hearts burning within us with 
ardent fervor. For a little while zeal has 
eaten us up, we have "boiled over" with 
enthusiasm. And then we have succumbed 
under the burden and heat of the day. We 
forget that God is faithful Who has promised. 
We lose the sense of obligation, responsi- 
bility. The novelty of our first love wears 
off, and we are in danger of losing our re- 
ward, in danger of becoming lost souls. 

4. It is a good thing to make an Act of 

[75] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



Love every day. Remember therefore from 
whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do 
the first works. . . . To him that over- 
cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life 
which is in the midst of the Paradise of 
God. 



II. TO SMYRNA 
Revelation ii: 8 

I. The Epistles to the Seven Churches 
all teach us the true place of works. At 
the same time we learn that in themselves 
they are not sufficient. So faith without 
works is dead. Acceptable works must be 
the outcome of a right faith. The quality 
and the value of works depends upon one's 
faith. Believe rightly and you will do rightly. 
Be good and you will do good. Either, 
alone, is not enough. Many a morally irre- 
proachable, God-fearing Christian is so dried 
up in his cold respectability and frigid re- 

[76] 



THE EPISTLE TO SMYRNA 

serve, that he is like a living corpse — he has 
faith, but because he does no works he is 
like a dead man! 

2. (a) The Christians of Smyrna endured 
tribulation and poverty. These seem to be 
two of the attending satellites of most Cath- 
olic Christians. "Christian is my name and 
Catholic my surname," and Sister Poverty 
and Brother Tribulation are in the family. 
Saint Polycarp, who was a disciple of Saint 
John, was Bishop of Smyrna. Our religion 
to be worth anything to us must cost us 
something; to be worth a great deal it must 
cost us much. In a country where there is 
so much individualism in belief, and where 
the Catholic Church is still a vast and scat- 
tered missionary body, there still must be 
much individual persecution. 

(b) Our country is a free country, and in 
religious matters we often hear freedom of 
choice much vaunted. But when a child in 
a family chooses to be a Catholic and re- 

[77] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



sponds to the Divine call, life in the home 
sometimes becomes difficult. The pain of the 
Cross, the cost of our faith, pinches. The 
saints counted all things loss for Christ's sake 
— literally they forsook father, and mother 
and brethren, and lands for Christ's sweet 
sake. Let us not shrink from the ignominy 
of being disciples of the hated Nazarene! 

3. (a) Fear none of those things which 
thou shalt suffer. Fear not at all. The 
kingdom of pain and the school of suffer- 
ing relate us to a vast multitude, quite the 
largest part of the human family; in them we 
learn to acknowledge Christ our King and 
our Master. By bearing pain and enduring 
suffering we destroy the power of the devil, 
we overcome him. Satan could not under- 
stand the mystery of the Cross until on Cal- 
vary the Spirit of the Redeemer leapt from it 
and destroyed his power forever. So now the 
Sign of the Cross causes gnashing of teeth. 

(b) Pain is a furnace, and suffering is like 

[78] 



THE EPISTLE TO SMYRNA 

the white heat of the refiner's fire, but from 
its midst comes forth the pure gold of holi- 
ness and perfection. Aubrey de Vere says 
that even 

" Grief should be 
Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate; 
Confining, cleansing, raising, making free: 
Strong to consume small troubles; to commend 
Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end." 

4. The charge to the Catholics of Smyrna 
has come down through the centuries, one 
of the best loved war-cries of the Church, 
a song of brave hearts and a paean of val- 
iant souls — a call to fidelity and steadfast- 
ness, Be thou faithful unto death, and I 
will give thee a crown of life. 

5. He that overcometh shall not be hurt 
of the second death. There is no comfort- 
ing hope of annihilation for impatient sin- 
ners or for those who will choose finally to 
reject Christ our Lord! But over those 
tried as were these of Smyrna, death and 
hell shall have no power. (See Rev. xxi:8.) 

[79] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



6. Pray for 

"The gift of seeing in the darkest night, the light beyond, 
In bewildering labyrinths of life the one true way, 
In pitiless despair's wild sea, the anchor of sure hope, 
And always over all the Blessed Cross!" 



III. TO PERGAMOS 

Revelation ii: 12 

I. No National Church is indefectible. 
Consider the possibility of the disintegra- 
tion of every National Church now existent. 
As we look at the Church in the light of his- 
tory, we see that as with nations and dynas- 
ties, so with many national churches, they 
have perished. But the Church herself can- 
not perish. At the last, though only a rem- 
nant remain, the faithful here upon earth, 
the members of Christ's mystical kingdom, 
shall be found still bearing their witness to 
the Truth. Yet while it is quite impossible 
for the sins of faith or practice, of a National 
Church, to affect the character of the whole 

[80] 



THE EPISTLE TO PERGAMOS 

Church, disloyalty to the standards of the 
Faith might result in her visitation by the 
Divine vengeance, so that her candlestick 
might be removed. Such might be the re- 
sult of works without a pure Faith. 

2. The obliteration of the Seven Churches 
is not without deep significance. The sees 
were perhaps small, but some of their names 
are known throughout the world unto this 
day. The glories of Byzantium and ancient 
Rome are imperishable memories. In years 
to come, consider the possibility of what 
may happen to New York, London, Paris, 
Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, 
St. Louis, San Francisco, Omaha. The 
greater a city is, as a mart of commerce, a 
seat of learning, or a centre of art and cul- 
ture, the greater the danger under which the 
Church labors — because there surely will 
Satan's seat be set up. In such places it is 
always going to be hard for the Church to 
hold her own. This is life eternal, that 

[*i ] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



they might know Thee the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent. 1 
But in our great cities we find only a small 
number admitting this; the demands made 
upon those who make up the leaven of 
Christ's kingdom are such that few can 
bear the hard sayings of the Master of our 
destiny. In such places there is a call to 
heroic endeavor. Christ is in us the hope 
of glory — the prince of this world cometh, 
and hath nothing in Me. 2 

3. (a) The Church in Pergamos did hold 
fast the name of Christ and did not deny 
the Faith, and bore the fruit of martyrdom, 
in the person of Antipas. But she allowed 
laxity of practice, and evidently condoned 
that which our Lord would not permit. 
The position of a national church on such a 
question as Marriage and Divorce, or the 
doctrine of the Christian Ministry, is so 
weighty that a mistake might be fatal to 

*S. John xvii: 3. 2 Ibid xiv: 30. 

[82] 



THE EPISTLE TO PERGAMOS 

her continuity. The doctrine of Apostol- 
ical Succession may seem secondary to some. 
Its abandonment would mean decline, sick- 
ness, death. The Vision of Unity has often 
been a fata morgana, 

(b) Are the divisions in Christ's Church 
Militant an expression of the Divine Will, 
or are they the work of Satan who has 
nothing in the Prince of the Catholic Church ? 
We know that they are the expression of 
self-will and pride, the result of impatience, 
and of a desire of some to hasten God's 
kingdom and to force His Hand! How often 
intelligent people say, "What difference does 
it make? If you try to live a good life and 
keep the Commandments, isn't one Church 
as good as another?" The Divine nature of 
The Church is wholly ignored or misunder- 
stood. To be loyal Christians we must 
be loyal and obedient adherents of that 
visible Body which is here today with its 
divinely constituted Ministry and Sacra- 

[8 3 ] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



ments, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apos- 
tolic Church. To forego one of the vital 
conditions of unity with her, for the sake of 
union with any who by separation now dis- 
avow the principle of the necessity of that 
unity, would imperil the existence of any 
National Church — she would indeed then 
lose her candlestick. 

4. The white stone and the new name 
promised to him that overcometh, are for 
those only who are true to Christ and His 
Church. Examine yourself on this question 
of loyalty. To him that overcometh will 
I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will 
give him a white stone, and in the stone a 
new name written, which no man knoweth 
saving he that receiveth it. 

"He is a slave who would not be 
In the right with two or three; 
He is a slave who would not choose 
Falsehood, slander, and abuse 
Sooner than meanly seem to shrink 
From the truth he needs must think." 



[84] 



THE EPISTLE TO THYATIRA 

IV. TO THYATIRA 
Revelation ii: 18 

1. Love enhanced the other virtues of 
the Church in Thyatira. But outside the 
city wall was a fane, erected to the sibyl 
Sambetha, in an enclosure known as the 
Chaldean court. In some manner the Church 
was involved in idolatrous practices — per- 
haps as churches today become culpable — 
by winking at evil doings. So the guilt of 
spiritual fornication and adultery — forms 
of idolatry — is laid against her. 

2. Sins of the flesh particularly, try the 
faith and endurance of the devout. One 
effect of the Fall of Adam was to deflect the 
quiet streams of pure affection into turbu- 
lent, stormy torrents of passion. The thirst 
of the soul for God can never be satis- 
fied outside of Himself. Passion enthrones 
self, as expressed by the importunate de- 
mands of the senses, which were given to 

[85] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



help us find God, and when we consent to 
its demands, we commit idolatry. Even 
when we know Jesus to be the Son of God, 
the Pure and Altogether Lovely One, pas- 
sion surges like red blood into our eyes and 
we are sometimes blinded. 

3. How the soul sometimes descends into 
the very depths of Satan, led by the leash 
of unlawful desire! But the never failing 
Divine Patience endures the wayward wan- 
derings of our froward hearts, and again 
and again space for repentance is given us 
and prolonged. We must repent if at all 
before the time of our visitation ceases — 
lest we become like Esau. 1 We must be 
filled with holy fear lest even our children 
be seduced by the snares and allurements 
of the sorceress. 

4. All the Churches shall know that I am 
He. Jesus is God. He is ever proving men 
as He searches the very heart and reins. 



1 Heb. xii: 17. 

[86] 



THE EPISTLE TO THYATIRA 

He knows what is in man. Now He that 
planteth and He that watereth are one: and 
every man shall receive his own reward 
according to his own labor. 1 We must 
hold fast until the Day of the Lord comes. 
Ours is the daily labor of love, to watch, to 
do the works, to be patient, to be faithful. 
The vessels of the potter — all devices of 
diabolical or human invention that would 
draw the soul from its appointed destiny 
— shall in the Day of the Lord be broken to 
shivers. He that overcometh ... I will 
give him the Morning Star — He will Him- 
self be the exceeding great reward of them 
that persevere unto the end. Pray that 
through all the mists of temptation you may 
never lose sight of the Light of the Morn- 
ing Star! 

1 1 Cor. iii: 8. 



[87] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



V. TO SARDIS 
Revelation iii: i 

1. Sardis was the ancient capital of Lydia, 
and the city where Croesus had once reigned 
as king. To the Church in Sardis Christ 
speaks: These things saith He that hath the 
seven Spirits of God. Jesus is Lord and God 
and possessed the Holy Spirit in His abso- 
lute fulness. So also the Holy Ghost is abso- 
lutely one, yet infinitely manifold in His 
operation. Seven is the mystical number sig- 
nifying perfection, the number of the whole 
and perfect Church and the number of the 
Holy Ghost, who dwells in and fills each 
Church wholly and separately. So we read 
of the seven Spirits of God, as signifying the 
sevenfold operation of the One Spirit. 

2. The Church in Sardis had a name — it 

was living but it was dead. Like many a 

soul in mortal sin! Like many a parish 

where the lamp has gone out because it has 

[88] 



THE EPISTLE TO SARDIS 

not been kept filled with oil and the wick 
has not been kept trimmed. It is a great 
responsibility to have a reputation to sus- 
tain. Christians are charged with main- 
taining the honor of their Lord. They are 
therefore called upon frequently to rehearse 
the articles of their belief, to hear sermons, 
to be frequent and regular in the perform- 
ance of their public duties as Christian- 
folk, to be punctilious in their observance of 
the Lord's Day, of the fasts and holy-days 
of the Christian Year, in the study of Holy 
Scripture, in prayer, and fasting, and alms- 
giving. If they have a name that they are 
living, and are dead, woe unto them. 

3. Watchfulness is the ever-attendant 
watchword of Christian folk. What I say 
unto you I say unto all, Watch! 1 Be watch- 
ful and strengthen the things which remain 
that are ready to die: for I have not found 
thy works perfect before God. Imperfec- 

1 S. Mark xiii: 37. 

[89] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



tion is the mark of all finite things. There 
can be no perfection apart from complete 
union with God. In the warfare of the 
Christian life there is no discharge until we 
lay down our guerdon. The work given to 
the Church in Sardis was imperfectly done, 
unfulfilled. Religion often has no heart be- 
cause we have lost our zeal. To be zealous 
is to boil over with enthusiasm and interest. 

4. The Master is come, and calleth for 
thee! 1 Our Blessed Lord comes to and calls 
all the world: God called the world. And He 
calls each soul and He comes to each soul — 
to the truly converted, the really contrite 
heart, not only in judgment, but in mercy. 
His mercy is over all His works. But when 
He comes at the last it will be as a thief in 
the night. Watch, therefore! 

5. There will always be a few which have 
not defiled their garments, to whom will 
cling no taint of deadly sin. And they 



1 S. John xi: 28. 

[90] 



THE EPISTLE TO PHILADELPHIA 

shall walk with Me in white: for they are 
worthy. He that overcometh, the same 
shall be clothed in white raiment — the 
interior purity and holiness which adorned 
the soul in secret, shall be manifested before 
angels and men. Living perhaps a life 
quite unknown and hidden from the world, 
in eternity, the splendor of the saints of 
God shall shine forth as the sun, and they 
who here valiantly confessed the Name of 
Christ shall hear their names confessed before 
the Father and the whole company of 
Heaven. 

VI. TO PHILADELPHIA 
Revelation iii: 7 

1. Philadelphia, the ancient city of 
Brotherly Love, was built by Attalus Phil- 
adelphus, King of Pergamos, who died 
B.C. 138. The Church in Philadelphia is 
addressed by Him that is Holy and True and 

[91] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



Who exercised authority — the key of 
David, over the House of David. Christ 
possessed the power of the keys and this 
power He transmitted to His Church. A 
great door and effectual 1 to the kingdom of 
Heaven has been opened by our Lord, and 
the power of the keys is committed to the 
priesthood of His Body Mystical who in 
the Person of Christ openeth and no man 
shutteth; and shutteth and no man openeth. 2 
Christ baptizes, Christ absolves, Christ is 
the Priest acting and working in every act 
of His ministerial priesthood. 

2. The Church in Philadelphia was pos- 
sessed of strength, she was loyal and stead- 
fast in her adherence to that faith once for 
all delivered to the saints. She was in the 
position in which the Church today finds 
herself when she maintains the verities of 
the Catholic religion and the revealed doc- 
trine of the Divinity of Christ — Jesus the 

1 1 Cor. xvi: 9. 2 S. Matt, xvi: 19. 

[92] 



THE EPISTLE TO PHILADELPHIA 

Eternal Son of God, God of God, by Whom 
all things were made — as against those who 
would claim the Name of Christians, yet at 
the same time deny His Divine Personal- 
ity. We believe Jesus Christ to be God on 
the authority of the Catholic Church. 

3. Every tongue shall confess at last, 
that Jesus is God, and the nations of the 
earth shall come and worship at His feet 
and know that He has loved them. Having 
this faith we can understand the martyr- 
spirit of the early days of Christianity and 
the heroism still shown in modern times as 
men and women go out to heathen lands, 
and into the waste places of our own semi- 
heathen country, to bear witness to the 
Truth and to work and pray for the salva- 
tion of the lost and erring. The trials we 
undergo must make us patient. 

4. The Church is herself indefectible, 
she cannot perish. To those who perse- 
vere, when the final persecution comes, and 

[93] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



the nations of the world stand arrayed on 
the field of Armageddon against the rem- 
nant of the faithful, will be given the grace 
of final perseverance. Because thou hast 
kept the word of My patience, I also will 
keep thee from the hour of temptation, 
which shall come upon all the world, to try 
them that dwell upon the earth. The 
gates of Hell shall not prevail against them! 
We do well to remember, too, that no man 
can be tempted above what he is able to 
bear. 1 Often we forget the Divine pledge 
that with every temptation will be provided 
a means to escape its power. 

5. Behold, I come quickly: a thousand 
years in God's sight are but as yesterday 
to Him Who is the same, Yesterday, and 
Today, and Forever. The time is always 
short. We must hold fast the treasures 
of grace and prize them with jealous care, 
that no man take the crown of life eternal 



1 1 Cor. x: 13. 

[94] 



THE EPISTLE TO PHILADELPHIA 

prepared for the victor, for him who over- 
cometh the world. 

6. Here we are fellow-workers with Christ, 
and sharers in the inheritance of the King- 
dom of Heaven which He has obtained for 
us. He that overcometh shall continue to 
share the ever new unfolding treasures pre- 
pared and awaiting those who go into the 
Life Everlasting at His Second Coming. 
The victorious warrior of God shall have 
written upon him the Name of God and the 
name of the city glorious, as he enters into 
the freedom of Jerusalem Shammah — "the 
Lord is there." And last of all, that new 
Name that no man knoweth but Jesus Him- 
self — a Name of mystery yet to be revealed. 
The Rider upon the white horse goes forth 
conquering and to conquer. Pray for an in- 
crease of brotherly love between the nations 
of the earth. 



[9Sl 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



VII. TO LAODICEA 
Revelation iii: 14 

1. The Epistle to the Church of self- 
satisfied, opulent Laodicea, is extraordinary 
for its contrasts. Christ Who is the Alpha 
and Omega, the First and the Last, the faith- 
ful and true Witness, By Whom all things 
were made and in Whom are all things, 
uses to this Church epithets that are ter- 
rifying in their severity, and then promises 
her rewards exceeding those promised to 
the other Churches. So is it that the great- 
est sinners — greatest because flagrant and 
notorious in their viciousness — may, by 
the power of grace, become great saints. 
The contrasts in the spiritual life are often 
extreme. Sinners sound the lowest depths. 
Saints climb the highest steeps. The sins 
of the woman in Simon's house were for- 
given her because she loved much. 1 

1 S. Luke vii: 47. 

[96] 



THE EPISTLE TO LAODICEA 

2. Lukewarmness is very often the curse 
of many Churches, congregations, souls. 
The zeal of Thine House hath eaten me up 1 
— As a young man marrieth a virgin, even 
so shall thy sons marry thee 2 — I have been 
very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts 3 — 
What things were gain to me, those I counted 
loss for Christ 4 — Fight the good fight of 
faith, lay hold on eternal life: 5 — where today 
is the spirit that brought forth from prophets 
and apostles these burning words ! Here and 
there a Damien, a Hannington, a Kemper, a 
Hopkins, a Keble, a Pusey, a Seymour, a 
Rowe, a priest, a sister, a missionary, live 
and die for Jesus Christ and His Church. 
But most of us must confess lukewarmness. 

3. Rich in worldly goods the temptation 
is to say, O soul, thou hast much goods. 6 
Wearing purple and fine linen we may for- 
get the needy — Christ and His poor laid 

1 Psalms lxix: 9. 2 Isa. lxii: 5. • 1 Kings xix. 

*Philipp. iii: 7. 6 1 Tim. vi: 12. 6 S. Luke xii: 19. 

[97] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



at our gates. We do not know that with- 
out heavenly riches we are indeed wretched 
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
naked, that without Christ we are nothing, 
' To find God is the true romance of every 
soul." Alas! if we know not God. 

4. There comes a cry from the mountain 
tops, Awake! thou that sleepest. 1 Then 
comes to the lukewarm Church, to the cold- 
hearted Christian, rebuke and chastisement. 
Let us learn to look upon the chastisements 
that afflict us as the rebuke of wounded Love. 
Grief and Pain are often the handmaids of 
Penitence. Sometimes it is only when be- 
reavement and loss have stricken us, that 
out of the evil brought upon us we see a 
vision of the Uncreated Beauty and hear 
the knocking at the door and the Voice of 
the Beloved, and open unto Him. 

5. The message to Laodicea reminds us 
also that there is always hope. Out of the 



1 Ephes. v: 14. 

[98] 



THE EPISTLE TO LAODICEA 

ashes of Penitence may bloom the rose of 
Love. It is to those who are the sorest 
smitten that the Voice of the Beloved sounds 
the sweetest; it is to the most wayward one 
that the smile of Jesus kindles with most 
loving tenderness. 

6. To him that overcometh will I grant 
to sit with me on My throne even as I also 
overcame, and am set down with My Father 
on His throne The victor is to share with 
the King of Kings the fruits of His victory. 

Pray for grace to be diligent. Pray for 
zeal. Pray for ever deepening contrition 
and increasing love. The more our sorrow 
deepens, the more we love. Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
and thy neighbor as thyself. 

What a different world this would be if 
we did love our neighbor as ourself! 



[99] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



XXI 

THE LAST THINGS 

Hebrews ix: 27 

1. We affirm our belief that Christ shall 
come again, with glory, to judge both the 
quick and the dead. This truth is kept 
before us constantly; there is no escaping it. 
Life is short. Death and the Judgment are 
inevitable. It is appointed unto man once 
to die, but after this the judgment. 1 One 
morning I shall waken and for me there 
shall be no to-morrow. We must work 
while it is day, for the night cometh when 
no man can work. 2 

"Our life is but a fleeting span," 

like a flower — like a shadow — as a dream 
— so soon passeth it away! How strange 
it is that the glamour of "this world" should 
be so fascinating, so enthralling. I am in a 

^eb. x: 27. 2 S. John ix: 4. 

[lOO] 



THE LAST THINGS 



very real sense the captain of my soul. I 
may become the servant of Jesus Christ, or 
the tool of Satan. I may climb the heavenly 
steeps, or descend into the lowest abyss of 
darkness. My life can be occupied with my 
Father's business, or be idle and purpose- 
less. I have at least one talent. I may 
use it or not as I please. My daily life, 
lived with or without God, is making my 
heaven or hell. Lord, what wilt Thou have 
me to do? Here we offer and present unto 
Thee, Lord, ourselves, our souls and 
bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living 
sacrifice. 

2. Death, be it remembered, is the wages 
of sin. 1 God created man to be immortal, 
and made him to be an image of His own 
eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the 
devil came death into the world. By one 
man sin entered into the world, and death 
by sin; and so death passed upon all men. 2 

1 Rom. vi: 23. 2 Rom. v: 12. 

[101] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



Man's life in the flesh is a period of proba- 
tion. Probation ends at death. 1 The soul 
passes from the body to be scrutinized imme- 
diately in the Particular Judgment. In 
the first five minutes after death, the soul 
learns its final destiny. These will be cru- 
cial moments. The unerring eye of the 
Judge of all men will pierce the soul, and the 
thoughts and words and deeds of a lifetime 
will be adjudicated. Our day of reckon- 
ing will be the day of our death. Judgment 
will be rendered and our state will become 
fixed. The soul of the redeemed man will 
pass into Purgatory, that intermediate state 
in which all stains of earthly sin are purged 
and done away, and there be made ready 
for its final abode in the heavenly Jerusa- 
lem. We ought to thank God devoutly 
that there is a Purgatory. 

3. The day of the Lord, the day of the 
Last Judgment, will come at the end of this 



1 Eccles. xi: 3. 
[102] 



THE LAST THINGS 



world. Then the earth and the sea shall 
give up their dead, and together we shall 
all stand before the judgment seat, the great 
white throne. It will be the world's Easter 
Day. The angels of the Judgment will have 
summoned them that are asleep from the 
four corners of the earth. The Justice, and 
Wisdom, and Love, and Mercy of God will 
then be vindicated, at the mouth of sinners 
as well as saints, and time shall be no more. 
Those who have lost God shall go away into 
the outer darkness — Hell; those who have 
finally passed through the great tribula- 
tion and washed their robes and made them 
white in the Blood of the Lamb, shall be 
caught up and enter through the gates into 
the Beautiful City, and forever enjoy the 
Vision of God — Heaven. 

"Oh, what were life, if life were all!" 

4. Pray for wisdom, that we may never lose 
God. Here, we are pilgrims of the night. 
Heaven is our real home. There shall be no 

[103]. 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



night there. 1 We shall be as the angels. 
Our happiness will then be supreme, and 
body, soul, and spirit shall rejoice through all 
Eternity. 

XXII 

CHRISTMAS 

S. Luke ii: 6-19 

1. Consider the expectancy of the world, 
just prior to the Holy Nativity; the world's 
need of a Redeemer. The whole creation 
groaned and travailed in pain together. 
The voice of the sybil had been heard across 
the iEgean Sea, "Great Pan is dead." The 
fulness of time was approaching. The 
people of the Hebrews had preserved in 
the Ancient Church the great types of sacri- 
ficial worship, shadowing forth the Chris- 
tian Sacrifice. Roman civilization had built 
the roads to make possible the carrying of 

1 Rev. xxii: 5. 
[104] 



CHRISTMAS 



the Gospel to all nations. The Greek lan- 
guage, with its marvellous subtlety and 
felicity of expression, and its profound phi- 
losophy, was ready to pass on the Chris- 
tian revelation. The heart of the world 
was athirst for God; He was still, to many, 
the unknown God. 1 

2. Then was God manifested in the flesh. 
Blessed Mary, pure and undefiled — Ever 
Virgin — acquiesced in the Will of God, 
and the Word was made flesh. 2 Then on a 
winter's night, while shepherds watched 
their flocks, Jesus was born, and Love lay 
sleeping in the arms of His dear Mother, a 
Babe wrapped in swaddling bands, in the 
stable at Bethlehem. 3 

"The world in solemn stillness lay 
To hear the angels sing." 

We wonder what their heavenly music was 
like? The glory of the Lord and the peace 
of the world was the burden of the angelic 

1 Acts xvii: 23. 2 S. John i: 14. 3 S. Luke ii: 17. 

[105] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



song. We may share the eager joy of the 
shepherds and unite with them in their 
act of worship. Venite adoremus! 

3. Those present at the Holy Nativity 
may be divided into three groups, (a) 
Blessed Mary and Saint Joseph her spouse; 
(b) the Angels, and (c) the shepherds. The 
Incarnation united the Divine and Human 
natures in the Person of the Eternal Child. 

(a) Saint Mary was the chosen vessel — 
the God-bearer. All generations shall call 
her blessed; yet her meek spirit rejoiced in 
God her Saviour. Humble, albeit of David's 
royal line, she was exalted to a higher priv- 
ilege than ever before enjoyed by the 
daughters of men. The Child Jesus was her 
only son; He was the Son of God and Mary. 1 
Saint Joseph was the Spouse of the Blessed 
Virgin and the Guardian of the Holy Child. 
Together these three formed the Holy Fam- 
ily. Together they journeyed to Egypt and 



1 S. Luke i: 32, 35. 

[106] 



CHRISTMAS 



again, after Herod's death, returned to Naz- 
areth. Out of Egypt God called His Son. 1 
The perfect Pattern of obedience, Jesus was 
subject to His earthly protectors, and in- 
creased in wisdom and stature, and in fa- 
vor with God and man. 2 

(b) The Holy Angels had their part in 
every period of the divine history. Saint 
Gabriel was the Angel of the Annunciation. 3 
Angels warned the shepherds of the Sav- 
iour's birth. 4 Angels ministered to Him in 
His temptation. 5 Angels guarded the tomb. 6 
Angels told the Apostles of the Resurrec- 
tion, after they had rolled the rock away 
from the door of the sepulchre. Today 
they attend Him as they throng His altars 
where He holds His earthly court, and with 
them we unite our worship, with angels 
and archangels and with all the company 
of Heaven. 

1 S. Matt, ii: 15. 2 S. Luke ii: 52. 3 S. Luke i: 26. 
4 Ibid ii: 10. 6 S. Matt, iv: 11. 6 S. Luke xxiv: 4. 

[107] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



(c) The shepherds may represent those 
who are ever ready to hear the inner voice 
and to respond to the movements of the 
Holy Spirit. Let us now go even unto Beth- 
lehem, they said, and see this thing which 
is come to pass. 1 So they found the Eternal 
Child, the Wisdom of the Ages, incarnate 
in the manger. 

4. In His Sweet Sacrament Divine shall 
all pure hearts find Him, in His Glorified 
Humanity, as they draw near to Him in 
their Christmas communion. Hid in His 
earthly home, let us pay to Him our most 
devout homage; and as we receive Him, may 
He find in every heart a mansion prepared 
for Himself. 

1 S. Luke ii: 15. 



[108] 



CHILDHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD 



XXIII 
CHILDHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD 

S. Luke ii: 19 

1. Two conditions of life are conspicu- 
ous at this time of the year — childhood 
and motherhood. Two figures preeminently 
claim our attention — the Holy Child Jesus, 
the Blessed Mother Mary. The eastern 
country looms large, and Bethlehem, Egypt, 
and Nazareth each claim our notice. 

(a) Bethlehem of Judea ! A winter's night. 
The shining stars gleaming in the heavens. 
The crowded inn, occupied by the wealthy. 
No room for the Holy Child. Outside, a 
lowly stable — the birth-chamber of One 
Whose name is Wonderful. 1 A maid brings 
forth her First-born, and then He is wrapped 
in swaddling bands, and the near-by manger 
becomes the Infant's crib. Angels sing in 

1 Isa. ix: 6. 
[109] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



the air above Him. Shepherds come and 
adore, and later, in the fields, commune 
about this strange happening. And the 
Eternal Child sleeps sweetly, and again, 
cries and croons and nestles, as babies will, 
against His Mother's breast, and there finds 
contentment and satisfaction. 

(b) Egypt. 1 Type of sin and darkness. 
We picture the Flight. We see the tender solic- 
itude of Saint Joseph and his watchful care. 
We ponder upon the seclusion of Innocence, 
and contrast its mild sweetness and nameless 
charm, with the sturdy achievements of 
Sainthood, won after warfare and blood, 
temptation, strife, and hardship, and trial. 

(c) Nazareth. 2 The days of His youth. 
The subjection of loving obedience. The 
sanctification of the Common Life. The 
honorable estate of labor. Work — a trade 
— like our religion, to be learned. Work 
done well and faithfully. Tasks finished, 

1 S. Matt, ii: 14. 2 S. Luke ii: 52. 

[no] 



CHILDHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD 

none left incomplete. The daily unfolding 
of "the white flower of a blameless life." 
Consider the vast possibilities of childhood; 
its singular beauty; its strange power of 
attractiveness; its unique joys. Weakness 
triumphing over might. Consider its rare 
and unsullied loveliness. 

2. (a) Motherhood spells sacrifice. The 
Blessed Mother had learned obedience in 
her home and in the Temple courts. She 
was of a royal line. They rule best who 
first obey. A day in Thy courts is better 
than a thousand. 1 The devotion of Blessed 
Mary was hallowed; the deep things of God 
she pondered in her heart. Like many a 
maiden she peered through the mists that 
veil hidden mysteries, and she ever sought 
Him Whom her soul loved. So when the 
Will of God was revealed to her at the An- 
nunciation, she was ready to acquiesce at 
once: Be it unto me according to Thy word, 2 
1 Psalms Lxxxiv: 10. 2 S. Luke i: 38. 

[ml 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



was her answer to the Angel's message. 
The import of that message was more than 
she could understand, but she doubted not. 
So the dream of every Jewish maiden found 
its realization in the Lily of Israel, and the 
crowning joy of a woman's life — mother- 
hood — was hers. 

(b) Motherhood involves pain, joy, and 
sorrow. But heaviness only endures for a 
night, joy cometh in the morning. What 
joy was hers! She was Theotokos — God- 
bearer; henceforth she was Holy Mary, 
Mother of God, for from the moment of the 
Incarnation God was manifest in the flesh. 
How her spirit rejoiced! How her soul sang 
Magnificat! l In the eyes of her Son she 
saw heavenly visions. She saw Him in the 
Temple, the Wisdom of the Ages, speaking 
as never man spake. Then sorrow came and 
Calvary, and there stood by the Cross, 
Mary the Mother of Jesus. The Cross hal- 



1 S. Luke i: 46. 
[112] 



THE VIRGIN MOTHER 



lows motherhood. It lies between child- 
hood and sin. It is the medicine of the 
world. O Blessed Cross! 

Let us reverence all childhood and mother- 
hood for the sake of the Mother and her 
Divine Son. 



XXIV 

SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN: MOTHER 
OF GOD 

S. Luke i: 26-36 

1. Every day, all over the world, in nearly 
every Christian city, rings forth the Angelus 
bell, sounding its mystical three-times-three. 
At six in the morn, at noon, and at six at 
eventide, the world is thus called by the 
bells to rejoice and praise God for the Incar- 
nation of the Eternal Word. At the hour of 
Prime, when the Divine Redeemer was taken 
before Pilate; at the hour of Sext when He 

[113] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



hung upon the Tree of Calvary, and the last 
Three Hours dragged out their weary length; 
and at the Vesper hour, when the Sacred 
Body was taken down from the Rood by 
loving hands, and laid in the sepulchre, we 
are called to remember God's great love for 
man, love so great that He spared not His 
own Son. 1 So the triple tolling of the bell 
is in honor of the Blessed Three, just as the 
nine-fold Kyrie (used when the Decalogue 
is not said) is a three-times-three in honor 
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

2. {a) As we recall this divine mystery, we 
are also reminded of the unique place which a 
human will was permitted to have in the ac- 
complishment of the Eternal Will of God. The 
name of Mary should ever be said with the 
angel's "Blessed," and the "Ave" said with 

"... all but adoring love." 

The name of Mary is like the dominant sev- 
enth in the harmony of the music of the 

1 Rom. viii: 32. 

[114] 



THE VIRGIN MOTHER 



Incarnation. It was an angel's voice that 
said the first Ave, Since then, countless 
myriads of angels and saints have sung the 
glory and praises o^ the Ever- Virgin Mother. 
(That she was Ever-Virgin even Renan ad- 
mits. He says: "the proofs of our Lord 
being the only child of Mary are conclusive.") 
The Anglican sense of veneration needs cul- 
tivation and education, especially in Amer- 
ica. English-speaking Catholics often speak 
with a needlessly apologetic tone, when they 
venture to extol the Virgin-Mother, that 

"Mother whose virgin bosom was uncrost 
With the least shade of thought to sin allied! 
Woman! above all women glorified; 
Our tainted nature's solitary boast; 
Purer than foam on central ocean tost; 
Brighter than Eastern skies at daybreak strewn 
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon 
Before her wane begins on Heaven's blue coast." 

— Wordsworth. 

(b) Jesus, as the Eternal Word, was ever 
in the Bosom of His Father. 1 When the ful- 

1 S. John i: 18. 
[115] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



ness of time arrived, He became flesh, and 
for a while rested within the Bosom of Blessed 
Mary. By the operation of the Holy Ghost, 
He was made Very Man of the substance of 
the Virgin Mary His Mother, without spot 
of sin, to make us clean from all sin. Of this 
pure Virgin was He born on Christmas Day. 
It was of her untainted blood and undefiled 
flesh, that the Sacred Humanity was formed. 
Of all creatures, the Ever- Virgin Mother was 
marked by each Person of the Blessed Trinity, 
with an unique and indelible character. He 
that is mighty magnified the daughter of 
David's royal line. Yet, still a creature, her 
lowly spirit rejoiced in God her Saviour. 

3. Catholics can hardly love and venerate 
the Mother of God too much. We stop 
short only of giving her divine honor. We 
worship God alone with the worship we may 
not offer to any creature — latria. To Saint 
Mary, Queen of Saints — 



"Lily of Eden's fairest shade," 

[116] 



THE VIRGIN MOTHER 



we give the highest worship we are allowed 
to pay to any creature — hyper-dulia: 

"Angel nor saint His Face may see 
Apart from what He took from thee, 
How may we choose but name thy name 
Echoing below their glad acclaim 
In holy Creeds ? . . . 

'Hail Mary, full of grace;' O welcome sweet 
Which daily in all lands all Saints repeat." 

— Keble. 

4. (a) Only ignorance, or prejudice that 
is invincible, can hinder the faithful from, 
sometimes at least, invoking the interces- 
sions of the Virgin Mother and the Blessed 
Saints. We ignore the brightest aspect of 
the Communion of Saints if, believing in 
the intercession of the Saints — of which 
doctrine, for reasonable people, there is 
abundant proof — we never ask for it. If, 
like Saint Paul, we ask the prayers of earthly 
saints, how much more may our prayers be 
enriched if we still ask for the prayers of 
saints departed and in glory! 

A cloud of witnesses surround us. We are 

[117] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



in communion with the spirits of just men 
made perfect. Let us invoke their prayers. 
Saint Chrysostom says: "Let us flee to the 
intercession of the Saints, and let us beseech 
them to pray for us." And Saint Jerome: 
"If the Apostles and Martyrs while still in 
the body could pray for others, when they 
still ought to be full of care for themselves, 
how much more can they do so after they 
have been crowned in victories and tri- 
umphs!" Saint Cyril of Jerusalem writes: 
"We all of us supplicate Thee and offer to 
Thee this sacrifice that we may also com- 
memorate those who have fallen asleep be- 
fore us; firstly Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, 
Martyrs, to the end that God, by their 
prayers and intercessions, may accept our 
petitions." 

(b) Let us ask God to open the eyes of 
our souls, that we may see the beauty of 
this doctrine, and let us begin now to say, 
at least daily, the Hail Mary! 

[118] 



THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST 

XXV 

IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST 

Psalms xxvii: 8 

I. Consider how all through life the 
Christian is looking forward to that moment 
in the future, when, this earthly life ended, 
he shall, if he persevere, as the exceeding 
great reward of his love and service, see the 
King in His beauty, behold forever the Face 
of Jesus Christ. Do we ever imagine what 
that Face will be like? The Face which 
looked into His Mother's eyes; the Eyes that 
looked at Peter and searched the soul of 
Judas, and that wept over Jerusalem, and 
at the tomb of Lazarus? We know that, 
when He shall appear we shall be like Him; 
for we shall see Him as He is 1 : we shall see 
that beautiful Face that was often wet with 
the salt tears dropped for others' sorrows 

1 S. John in: 2. 

[119] 



a 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



and lighted by the fire of self-sacrifice." 
What have we done for Him? 

2. Consider that although we now walk 
as seeing Him Who is invisible, 1 by faith, 
not by sight, all that we do is seen and known 
of Him. Thou, God, seest me. He is about 
our paths, and about our bed, and spiest 
out all our ways. 2 Every day we live in the 
Face of Jesus Christ. In our prayers and 
meditations we are looking into that Face. 
We catch our joy from its Transfiguration. 

3. We speak of living or of doing such and 
such a thing in the face of the world. But 
every man lives secretly in a world that is 
all his own, where the eye of man never 
penetrates and where there are secret fast- 
nesses where the eye of the vulture hath not 
seen. 3 In this hidden world we live our real 
life. In it we ourselves know just what we 
are. There our thoughts move untram- 
melled, there we commune with our own 

1 Heb. xi: 27. 2 Psalms cxxxix: 3. 3 Job xxviii: 7. 
[I20] 



THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST 

hearts, there we work out strange problems 
and do strange things. Consider how this 
hidden life of the soul is of tremendous im- 
portance to Christians. The inner life must 
be lived in the Face of Jesus Christ, the Un- 
seen Watcher. In Heaven, in the depths of 
Hell, in the remotest places there always is 
that Face, and there are those Eyes search- 
ing, warning, rebuking, encouraging, plead- 
ing, attracting us, drawing us, and, if we 
will, holding us close and yet closer in tender 
fellowship — lifting us to heavenly places, 
drawing us out of the abyss. 

4. We shall be like Him. Meditate then 
before the Crucifix until you see those Eyes, 
and until you hear those Lips speak to you. 
Ask for the power of Renunciation until 
you, too, can say, Nothing but Thyself, O 
Lord. 



[121] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



XXVI 
DEATH 

Hebrews ix: 27 

I. (a) Consider the universal experience of 
nature, of animate and inanimate things. God 
created man to be immortal and to be an image 
of His own Eternity. Nevertheless, through 
envy of the devil came Death into the world 
— so we read in the Book of Wisdom. 1 

(b) We think of Eden, that fair garden of 
delights, where Adam walked and talked 
with God. We can elaborate the most 
exquisite pastoral idyl, with Eden as the 
scene of action. There we find man coming 
from God — the crowning act of His creation. 
There we see the creation of Eve — the mother 
of all living. There we see the coming of 
Love, for a while holy and undefiled. There 
was the most perfect earthly felicity. 



1 Wisdom ii: 23, 24. 
[122] 



DEATH 

(c) Then there comes into the Garden 
Satan — the fallen Lucifer — he whom the 
Son of God saw as lightning fall from Heaven. 1 
As is in the power of angels, the Devil now 
comes disguised, as a serpent, more subtle 
than any beast of the field which the Lord 
God had made. 2 He finds Eve gazing upon 
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 
God has declared the fruit it bears for- 
bidden. Yet, and how feminine! Eve's 
curiosity has been excited — the lust of the 
eye! Study the colloquy between Eve and 
the Serpent. It is a story of age-old signifi- 
cance. Eve allows herself to be deceived. 
How like ourselves today! Curiosity be- 
comes covetousness. The pride of life — 
she would have herself and Adam be as gods! 
She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, 
and gave also unto her husband with her; 
and he did eat. 

(d) It was a fatal meal. How much harm 

1 S. Luke x: 8. 2 Gen. iii: I. 

[123] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



may come from unrestrained eating or 
drinking. Then the eyes of them both were 
opened, and they knew that they were 
naked. Idle curiosity gazing at things for- 
bidden, listening to the voice of tempta- 
tion, disallowing the commandments of God, 
yielding of the will, the act of sin, and then 
the instant coming of the sense of shame — 
its first blush! Then its fearful and far- 
reaching results. The pleasure of labor 
becomes toil, and there follow in the wake of 
that Tremendous Trifle — that one small 
act of disobedience — pain and sorrow, the 
seven deadly sins in all their mysterious and 
awful ramifications, Pride, Envy, Anger, 
Covetousness, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth. The 
peace of Eden is gone. There Adam no more 
may remain. And then there follows that 
dreadful scene; Abel is slain, and Cain, mur- 
derer and outcast, wanders abroad. Through 
envy of the devil came Death into the world, 

sickness and pain, misery and adversity. 

[124] 



DEATH 

2. Consider death, therefore, as a pen- 
alty — the wages of sin. 1 A sting forever to 
wound and hurt our dearest and our best. 
Stalking in spectral form among those gath- 
ered at every feast, grim, remorseless, insist- 
ent, — the envy of Satan claiming with the 
wide swath of his sickle, child and mother, 
wife or brother, lover or friend. The inno- 
cent and guilty alike — every man must 
taste of death. 

3. (a) Then consider how Christ Jesus 
our Saviour has overcome death for us, 
how He has really taken away its sting, 
and sweetened its bitterness, so that if we 
die in Christ, we are but falling asleep. For 
the penitent Christian death must lose a 
large measure of its blackness. Our Lord 
has brought life and immortality to light. 2 

(b) Death henceforth is an incident in 
the soul's experience. We shall pass through 
its gate, but as we pass, its darkness shall pass 

1 Rom. vi: 23. 2 2 S. Tim. i: 10. 

[125] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



away, and we shall enter the domain in which 
dwells the Eternal, in that radiance of light 
supernal which no man can approach unto. 1 
4. So as we contemplate death, let us 
rid ourselves of its terrors, as we have faith 
in the merit of the Cross of Christ. He 
died for us. Learn of Him to live, day by 
day. Learn of Him to die. Calvary is 
the pattern deathbed. There we learn to 
forgive our enemies and to pray for them! 
There we learn to commit all earthly cares 
to His Divine Providence. There we learn 
that whenever the lost sheep may come back 
the Good Shepherd will lay it on His shoul- 
der rejoicing. There we learn that we must 
strive to run with patience the race that is 
set before us, enduring the cross, despising 
the shame. There we learn to die with an 
Act of Faith and a shout of victory on our 
lips. There we learn that as we pass through 
the grave and gate of death, our sorrow shall 



1 1 S. Tim. vi: 16. 

[126] 



A REVERIE 



be turned into joy; and that though we must 
pass through the sorrows of the world, 
heaviness may endure for a night, but joy 
cometh in the morning — in the morning of 
that eternal Easter Day when Death shall 
be no more. The gift of God is Eternal 
Life through Jesus Christ. 1 



XXVII 

A MOUNTAIN REVERIE 

When I awoke this morning the sun had 
just risen. One of the windows of my room, 
in a little cottage on one of the White Moun- 
tains, looks out toward the northwest. As 
I opened my eyes I noticed the light, and the 
unusual brightness of the sky, for the weather 
had not been clear for several days. Then 
as I looked out and down toward the valleys 
beneath, I saw something I had never seen 

1 Rom. vi: 23. 
[127] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



before. I looked out on what was appar- 
ently a wide-spreading lake of light gray, 
level, water. There was the dip in the hill 
below my cottage. I could hear the whistle 
of the early morning train some six miles 
away. There were the treetops in the fore- 
ground, as usual. But beyond, filling in 
every valley and cove as far as the eye could 
see, was this wide-spreading even expanse 
of — not sea, but cloud which, owing to 
atmospheric pressure and the condition of 
temperature, had settled like one great level 
of dull gray water. It was so strange 
that it took several seconds for me to real- 
ize what it was, and that instead of the coun- 
try having become inundated, I was looking 
out upon a sea of cloud. Presently the placid 
surface became ruffled, as though unseen 
hands were ploughing great furrows across 
it. And as the cloud slowly lifted, I thought 
about the Spirit of God brooding upon the 

face of the waters at Creation, and of the 

[128] 



THE SINGER'S HILLS 



Birth of Dawn, and all the strange mystery 
of Life. "In Thy Light shall we see light." 
The sea broke up and flitted away into the 
sky in fleecy cloudlets, as though the Voice 
of the Eternal had sounded in the World of 
Unborn Children, and summoned them one 
by one to the experiences of the Upper 
World. 



THE SINGER'S HILLS 

He dwelt where level lands lay low and drear, 
Long stretches of waste meadow pale and 

sere, 
With dull seas languid tiding up and down, 
Turning the lifeless sands from white to 

brown, — 

Wide barren fields for miles and miles, until 

The pale horizon walled them in, and still 

No lifted peak, no slope, not even mound 

To raise and cheer the weary eye was found. 

[129] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



From boyhood up and down these dismal 

lands, 
And pacing to and fro the barren sands, 
And always gazing, gazing seaward, went 
The Singer. Daily with the sad winds blent 
His yearning voice. 

"There must be hills," he said. 
"I know they stand at sunset, rosy red, 
And purple in the dewy shadowed morn; 
Great forest trees like babes are rocked and 

borne 
Upon their breasts, and flowers like jewels 

shine 
Around their feet, and gold and silver line 
Their hidden chambers, and great cities 

rise 
Stately where their protecting shadow lies, 
And men grow brave and women are more 

fair 
'Neath higher skies, and in the clearer air!" 
One day thus longing, gazing, lo! in awe 
Made calm by ecstasy, he sudden saw, 

[130] 



THE SINGER'S HILLS 



Far out to seaward, mountain peaks appear, 
Slow rising from the water pale and clear. 
Purple and azure, there they were, as he 
Had faithful yearning visions they must be; 
Purple and azure and bright rosy red, 
Like flashing jewels, on the sea they shed 
Their quenchless light. 

Great tears ran down 
The Singer's cheeks, and through the lusty 

town, 
And all across the dreary meadow lands, 
And all along the dreary lifeless sands, 
He called aloud. 

"Ho! tarry! tarry ye! 
Behold those purple mountains in the sea!" 
The people saw no mountains! 

"He is mad!" 
They careless said, and went their way and 

had 
No further thought of him. 

And so, among 
His fellows' noisy, idle crowding throng, 

[131] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



The Singer walked, as strangers walk who 

speak 
A foreign tongue and have no friend to seek. 
And yet the silent joy which filled his face 
Sometimes their wonder stirred a little 

space, 
And following his constant seaward look, 
One wistful gaze they also seaward took. 
One day the Singer was not seen. Men said 
That as the early day was breaking red, 
He rowed far out to sea, rowed swift and 

strong, 
Toward the spot where he had gazed so long. 
Then all the people shook their heads, and 

went 
A little sadly, thinking he had spent 
His life in vain, and sorry they no more 
Should hear his sweet mad songs along their 

shore. 
But when the sea with sunset hues was 

dyed, 
A boat came slowly drifting with the tide, 

[132] 



THE SINGER'S HILLS 



Nor oar nor rudder set to turn or stay, 
And on the crimson deck the Singer lay. 
"Ah, he is dead," some cried. "No! he but 

sleeps," 
Said others, "madman that he is, joy keeps 
Sweet vigils with him now." 

The light keel grazed 
The sands; alert and swift the Singer raised 
His head, and with red cheeks and eyes aflame 
Leaped out, and shouted loud, and called 

by name 
Each man, and breathlessly his story told. 
"Lo, I have landed on the hills of gold! 
See, these are flowers, and these are fruits, 

and these 
Are boughs from off the giant forest trees; 
And these are jewels which lie loosely there, 
And these are stuffs which beauteous maidens 

wear!" 
And staggering he knelt upon the sands 
As laying burdens down. 

But empty hands 
[i33] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



His fellows saw, and passed on smiling. 
Yet, 

The ecstasy in which his face was set 

Again smote on their hearts with sudden 
sense 

Of half involuntary reverence. 

And some said, whispering, "Alack, is he 

The madman? Have ye never heard there 
be 

Some spells which make men blind?" 

And thenceforth they 

More closely watched the Singer day by day, 

Till finally they said, "He is not mad. 

There be such hills, and treasure to be had 

For seeking there! We too without delay 

Will sail." 

And of the men who sailed that way, 

Some found the purple mountains in the sea, 

Landed, and roamed their treasure coun- 
tries free, 

And drifted back with brimming laden hands. 

Walking along the lifeless, silent sands, 

[mi 



THE SINGER'S HILLS 



The Singer, gazing ever seaward, knew, 
Well knew the odors which the soft wind 

blew 
Of all the fruits and flowers and boughs they 

bore. 
Standing with hands stretched eager on the 

shore, 
When they leaped out, he called, "Now God 

be praised, 
Sweet comrades, were they then not fair?" 

Amazed, 
And with dull scorn, the other men who 

brought 
No treasures, found no mountains, and saw 

naught 
In these men's hands, and running to and fro 
As men unloading argosies whose freight 
Of gorgeous things bewildered by its weight. 
Tireless the great years waxed; the great 

years waned; 
Slowly the Singer's comrades grew and 

gained 

[135] 



THE LITTLE VALLEYS 



Till they were goodly number. 

No man's son 
Could hurt or hinder them. No pity born 
Of it could make them blush, or once make 

less 
Their joys estate; and as for loneliness 
They knew it not. 

Still rise the magic hills 
Purple and gold and red; the shore still 

thrills 
With fragrance when the sunset winds begin 
To blow and waft the subtle odors in 
From treasure-laden boats that drift, and 

bide 
The hours and moments of the wave and 

tide, 
Laden with fruits and boughs and flowers 

rare, 
And jewels such as monarchs do not wear, 
And costly stuffs which dazzle in the sight 
Stuffs wrought for purest virgin, bravest 

knight; 

[136] 



THE SINGER'S HILLS 



And men with cheeks all red, and eyes 

aflame, 
And hearts that call to hearts by brothers' 

name, 
Still leap out on the silent lifeless sands, 
And staggering with over-burdened hands 
Joyous lay down the treasures they have 

brought, 
While smiling, pitying, the world sees naught! 

Helen Jackson. 

By permission of the Publishers, 
Messrs. Little, Brown y Co. 



[137] 



THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN 

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR SHORT 
STUDIES IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 



BY 

CHARLES MERCER HALL, M.A. 

Rector of the Church of the Holy Cross, Kingston, New York 



i2mo. Pp. xii-137. Cloth 



"Unfolds the normal course of life in the Catho- 
lic Church, in a manner which will both commend 
it to those who have not yet realised the fulness 
of Catholic life and devotion, and will help those 
who are already practising Catholics to under- 
stand more fully the meaning of the sacramental 
life. The chapters are sober and devout, and the 
book well deserves the commendation which the 
Bishop of Milwaukee gives it in his preface." 

— The Church Times 

" Such books as this ought to be very useful to 
a parish priest trying to instruct his people to 
walk in the way of salvation." 

— The Living Church 

"We commend the work to all in our Church 
and those outside, who wish help in the Christian 
life as they travel onward and heavenward. For 
busy people this book must prove a most handy 
companion." 

— American Church S. S. Magazine 

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

NEW YORK, LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 



MAR 20 1912 



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